InnovationofMeaninginTwo-SidedMarkets:

howtoattracttheSecondSide?

SchoolofIndustrialandInformationEngineeringMasterofScienceinManagementEngineering

–DesignManagement,InnovationandEntrepreneurship

AcademicYear2015-2016

Supervisor:Prof.TommasoBuganza

Co-Supervisor:Ing.DanielTrabucchi

Dissertationby:FedericoZanella836541

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1 Introduction.................................................................................................................16

2 LiteratureReview.......................................................................................................192.1 InnovationofMeaning......................................................................................................202.1.1 DefinitionsandSettings........................................................................................................202.1.2 Design-DrivenInnovation....................................................................................................222.1.3 TechnologyEpiphanies.........................................................................................................27

2.2 Platforms................................................................................................................................302.2.1 Definition.....................................................................................................................................302.2.2 Platform’sActors.....................................................................................................................312.2.3 TypeofPlatforms....................................................................................................................332.2.4 StrategiestoSuccess..............................................................................................................35

2.3 Two-SidedMarkets.............................................................................................................392.3.1 DefinitionsandGeneralInformation..............................................................................392.3.2 PeculiaritiesofaTwo-SidedMarket...............................................................................412.3.3 OneSideValueAddedServices..........................................................................................45

2.4 IdentifiyingtheresearchgapandResearhQuesions.............................................47

3 Methodology.................................................................................................................493.1 AreaofInvestigation..........................................................................................................503.2 Sampling.................................................................................................................................543.3 DataGathering.....................................................................................................................573.4 DataAnalysis........................................................................................................................593.4.1 Platforms.....................................................................................................................................613.4.2 Two-SidedMarket...................................................................................................................613.4.3 InnovationofMeaning...........................................................................................................62

4 Results............................................................................................................................634.1 Spotify.....................................................................................................................................634.2 Airbnb.....................................................................................................................................664.3 Uber.........................................................................................................................................694.4 Trivago....................................................................................................................................714.5 Deliveroo................................................................................................................................734.6 Recap.......................................................................................................................................77

5 Discussion.....................................................................................................................78

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6 Conclusions...................................................................................................................846.1 TheoreticalImplications..................................................................................................846.2 ManagerialImplications...................................................................................................866.3 FurtherResearch................................................................................................................87

7 References....................................................................................................................88

8 Attachments.................................................................................................................93

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ListofFiguresFigure1:SmartphoneUsageGrowth...........................................................16

Figure2:DimensionsofInnovation(Verganti2008)....................................23

Figure3:InnovationStrategies(Verganti,2008).........................................26

Figure4:InvestmentsprovidedtoFoodDeliverySector.............................51

Figure5:SizeofFood-DeliveryMarket........................................................52

Figure6:OnlineFoodDeliverygrowth.........................................................53

Figure7:CodeTree......................................................................................60

Figure8:MeaningInnovationinSpotify......................................................64

Figure9:MeaningInnovationinAirbnb.......................................................67

Figure10:MeaningInnovationinUber.......................................................69

Figure11:MeaningInnovationinTrivago....................................................71

Figure12:MeaningInnovationinDeliveroo................................................74

Figure13:ChangeintheReasonWhy..........................................................80

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ListofTablesTable1:MeaningInnovationinCaseStudies..............................................54

Table2:CodeReferences.............................................................................62

Table3:SpotifyRecap..................................................................................65

Table4:AirbnbRecap..................................................................................68

Table5:UberRecap.....................................................................................70

Table6:TrivagoRecap.................................................................................72

Table7:DeliverooRecap..............................................................................76

Table8:GeneralRecapoftheCases............................................................77

Table9:CodingforthePlatform..................................................................93

Table10:CodingfortheTwo-SidedMarket................................................96

Table11:CodingfortheMeaning................................................................98

Table12:DeliverooSecondarySources.....................................................100

Table13:OnlineFoodDeliverySecondarySources...................................101

Table14:SpotifySecondarySources.........................................................102

Table15:TrivagoSecondarySources.........................................................103

Table16:UberSecondarySources.............................................................104

Table17:AirbnbSecondarySources..........................................................105

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AbstractThe rising amount of Technologywhich is investing theworld nowadays,

brought many consequences in the ways of act of the companies, in

particular:

• ThefirstoneistheapplicationoftheDesignstrategiestointroducenew

products or services in the market, thus trying to develop new

breakthroughInnovationofMeaningabletogeneratenewreasonwhy

inthecustomers.

• Thesecondoneistherisingnumberofplatformswhichareappearingin

themarket,aimingtofacilitateandregulatethetradebetweendifferent

individuals all around the world, acting in the so called Two-Sided

Market.

While many things have been said in the Literature regarding the

InnovationofMeaningandtheTwo-SidedMarket,itseemsthatthereisa

lack of research at the intersection of the two topics. This study aims to

understandhowinnovationofmeaningaffectthemechanismsoftwo-sided

markets,focusinginparticularonthewaystoattractthesecondside.The

research isbasedonthestudyof fiveweb-basedplatformsthroughboth,

secondaryandprimarysources,whichhadbeenabletoreachthesuccess

intheirfieldsthroughtheintroductionofaradicalInnovationofMeaning.

ThemainresultregardshowtheInnovationofMeaningshouldbedeclined

onboththesidesoftheplatforms.Indeed,ifitistruethatthegeneralidea

of Innovation of Meaning could create new “reasons why” for the

customersof thefirstside, isnottruethatthis ideacouldbevaluable for

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thecustomerofthesecondsidetoo.OneSideValueAddedcanplayakey

role inenlargingtheeffectsof innovationofmeaningonthesecondside.

AnotherremarkablepointisgivenbytheconsequencesthatanInnovation

ofMeaning could have on themechanismwhich are regulating the Two-

SidedMarket, inparticularwe focusedon thepricingmethodandon the

Network Externalities. We show that, after the introduction of the

Innovation, themechanismregulatingaTwo-SidedMarketslightlychange

betweenthelawsprovidedbytheLiterature,inparticularis interestingto

highlighthowtheintroductionoftheValueAddedServicesisnotchanging

thepricingmethodwhichtheplatformsareadopting,andthat.

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ExecutiveSummaryinItalianLe innovazioni tecnologiche introdotte negli ultimi tempi stanno

costantementecambiandoilmondoincuiviviamo:bastipensarecheentro

il 2019 oltre un terzo dell’intera popolazione mondiale possiederà un

cellulare, avendo così la possibilità di comunicare istantaneamente e

commerciareliberamenteancheconpersonemoltodistanti.Questotrend

portaconsédueconseguenzeprincipali:

La prima riguarda la capacità di innovare non solamente legata

all’introduzione di prodotti e servizi ritenuti innovativi, ma la capacità di

introdurreinnovazionicheportinoconséuncambionella“reasonwhy”dei

clienti,ossianelmotivoperilqualeloroscelgonounprodottopiuttostoche

un altro. Ciò perché ad oggi il mondo risulta essere pieno di soluzioni, il

dilemmainfattisièspostatodalcercareunprodottocherispondaaduna

necessità,alcercare,tratuttiiprodottidisponibilenelmercato,quelloche

lanecessitàlarisolvemeglio.Introdurrequalcosadinuovoinunambiente

come questo non richiede solamente uno sforzo di sviluppo e

ingegnerizzazione, ma porta con se una vera e propria sfida in cui il

vincente risulta spesso essere l’azienda chemeglio riesce ad anticipare il

futuro e ad anticipare quelli che potrebbero essere i nuovi bisogni delle

persone. Questa è la cosiddetta Innovation of Meaning ed una delle

aziende che meglio ha saputo mettere in pratica questa pratica è stata

Apple: pensiamo ad esempio all’Apple Watch, in una situazione dove

l’industriadeiWearableerascarsamenteconsideratadatutti,sonostatiin

grado di anticipare quelli che potevano essere i bisogni dormienti

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all’internodellepersone,indovinandoliefacendodiventareilloroprodotto

un“musthave”pergliappassionatiditecnologia.

Fino ad ora abbiamo parlato della concezione classica dei prodotti e dei

servizi, ma cosa succede quando una tale introduzione va applicata a

piattaformedoveigruppidiclientinonsonosolamenteunomapiùdiuno?

La seconda conseguenza di ciò che abbiamo detto all’inizio, infatti, è

l’introduzionediquestinuoviBusinessModelchefungonodafacilitatoritra

le parti, ossia aventi il ruolo di permettere ad un gruppo di individui di

fornire beni o servizi, e ad un altro gruppo di poterli acquistare. Tali

Business Model sono le cosiddette piattaforme, ed operano in una

particolareformadimercatochiamataTwo-SidedMarket.

Al fine di capire meglio la situazione, abbiamo provveduto a studiare la

letteratura riguardante gli argomenti sopra citati, ossia Innovation of

Meaning,Two-SidedMarket,elePiattaforme.

Il risultato della ricerca è stata la constatazione di un gap riguardante lo

sviluppodell’InnovationofMeaningall’internodiunapiattaformaoperante

in un Two-Sided Market, il quale ci ha portato a definire le seguenti

domandediricercaallequalicercheremodirisponderetramitel’utilizzodi

cinquecasistudio:

• Comeun’aziendapuòintrodurreun’InnovationofMeaninginaTwo-

SidedMarket?

• Come un’Innovation of Meaning può cambiare i meccanismi che

regolanounTwo-SidedMarket?

Comedettosopra, risponderemoaquestedomandeattraverso l’analisidi

più casi studio, nella parte seguente vedremo come sono stati scelti: in

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particolareanalizzeremol’areadiinvestigazione,andandoacapirepoiquali

sono icriterichecihannoportatoaselezionaretaliaziendepiuttostoche

altre.Inseguitopasseremoallaraccoltadeidatievedremocomepoiquesti

sonostatitrattati.

Perquantoriguardal’areadiinvestigazione,cisiamofocalizzatisulmercato

delle piattaforme online, andando a cercare quei settori che più di altri

siano stati investiti da un’ondata innovativa negli ultimi anni. Abbiamo

utilizzato settori diversi tra loro al fine di avere una panoramica il più

generale possibile dell’intero mercato. Con uno dei cinque casi scelti

abbiamo deciso di addentrarci ancora di più nell’analisi, scegliendo il

settore che più di ogni altro secondo noi rappresentava l’introduzione di

un’InnovationofMeaningelafortepresenzadellastrutturatipicadeiTwo-

SidedMarket,ossial’OnlineFoodDelivery.

Dopoaver scelto il settoredove andare a concentrarsi, passiamoora alla

scelta delle aziende da utilizzare come casi studio: anche qui i driver che

hanno guidato la nostra scelta sono stati l’Innovation of Meaning e la

presenzadelmodellostrutturaletipicodeiTwo-SidedMarket.

Abbiamo selezionato quindi 5 casi di aziende capaci di introdurre nuove

“reasonwhy”all’internodelloromercato,inparticolarecisiamofocalizzati

suSpotify,Uber,Trivago,AirbnbeDeliveroo.

Una volta selezionati i casi è stata iniziata la raccolta dati, avvenutaper i

primiquattrocasiattraversofontisecondarie,quindiarticolidigiornale,siti

webevideo,mentreperilquintocaso,ossiaDeliveroo,sonostateraccolte

fontiprimarie intervistandoalcunefigureall’internodell’azienda:abbiamo

portato a termine due interviste al General Manager italiano, il quale è

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presente in Deliveroo fin dall’inizio dell’attività in Italia. Parlare con lui è

stato di grande supporto alla tesi ed abbiamo potuto approfondire

argomentilegatiallastrategiadell’azienda.

SuccessivamentealGeneralManagerabbiamosentitolanecessitàdicapire

meglio quali sono i meccanismi che si celano dietro ad una piattaforma

operante inunTwo-SidedMarket,abbiamoquindi individuatonellafigura

dell’Head of Operations italiano la persona che più ci potesse aiutare a

chiarirelasituazioneintalsenso.

L’opportunitàdipoterintervistarepiùpersonenellastessaaziendaèstata

importante ancheper limitare la soggettività dei dati raccolti, rendendo i

risultatimenodeviatidaeventualipareripersonali.

Perquantoriguardal’ultimostepdellametodologia,ossia l’analisideidati

ottenuti dalle interviste, abbiamo deciso di affidarci al Coding, ossia

clusterizzareleinformazioniincodicipredefiniti.

Sono stati definiti inizialmente tremacro argomenti, corrispondenti ai tre

settori di letteratura toccati, ossia Innovation of Meaning, Two-Sided

Marketelepiattaforme,inseguito,perognunodiquestitreèstatadefinita

una serie di codici riguardanti ognuno un argomentomolto più specifico

interessante per la nostra analisi. In particolare per quanto riguarda

l’InnovationofMeaningsonostateanalizzatelavecchiaelanuova“reason

why”,uniteall’eventualepresenzadiunaTechnologyEpiphany.Perquanto

riguarda le piattaforme l’interesse si è concentrato sugli attori che

interagisconoconqueste,esull’interazionefacilitata. Inultimo,periTwo-

SidedMarket,laricercasièsoffermatasullanumerositàdelSecondSidee

sullaselezionedellostesso,sullarelazioneche lega iduesides,sulpricing

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della piattaforma stessa e sull’introduzione di eventuali Value Added

Services.

Unavoltaclusterizzatituttiidati,sonostatiorganizzatiinunamatriceconil

codice corrispondente su un lato e il nome dell’azienda sull’altro. Il fine

ultimo di questo procedimento è quello di avere più chiara in mente la

situazione e poter conseguentemente organizzare le informazioni in

manierapiùefficace.

Unavoltaraccoltieanalizzatiidati,sièpotutoprocedereconlastesuradei

risultati,delladiscussioneedelleconclusioni.

Spotify è un’azienda lanciata nell’ottobre del 2008 in Svezia la quale

fornisce un servizio di streaming on demanddimusica in due varianti: la

primacompletamentegratuita,dovel’utenteèobbligatoadascoltaredella

pubblicità, la secondaapagamentodove l’utentepuòascoltare lamusica

liberamente, ha la possibilità di scaricarla offline, e può fruire di uno

streaming a qualità superiore. Nel mondo attualmente vi sono circa 75

milioni di utenti, di cui 40 a pagamento. La piattaforma si basa sulla

struttura di mercato dei Two-Sided Market, e fruisce di Network

Externalities positive. È interessante notare come l’azienda rielabori ed

utilizzi idati fornitigli inconsciamenteattraversogliascoltidagliutentiper

creareserviziaggiuntividaaggiungereall’offertaversoilSecondSide,ossia

leetichettemusicali, lequaliattraversoquestiservizipossonocapirequali

sonoitrendeigustideiclientialfinedisviluppareprodottichevadanoad

impattareperfettamenteesianoquindidisuccesso.

Uber è una startup di successo nata a Los Angeles nel 2010, rende

disponibili attraverso un’applicazione per cellulari dei driver personali

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grazie ai quali i clienti possono muoversi nelle città in maniera veloce,

immediata,masoprattuttoesclusiva.Idriverposseggonolaloromacchina

e sono liberi di lavorare quando vogliono previa l’esecuzione di un login

all’inizio del loro servizio. Anche in questo caso troviamo il classico

meccanismo delle Network Externalities positive, ossia maggiore è il

numero dei driver, maggiore è il valore della piattaforma per i clienti e

viceversa. È interessante notare come, anche in questo caso, l’azienda

elabori la grande mole di dati raccolti dall’utilizzo degli utenti al fine di

migliorarequelle chepuòessere l’esperienzadeidriver. Inoltre, ai driver,

vengonofornitigratuitamenteservizidirevisionedellamacchina,lavaggioe

affini,alfinedigarantiresempreun’esperienzadiqualitàalclienteefarsi

cheilvalorepercepitodaquestiultimesiasempremoltoalto.

Airbnb è un’azienda nata nel 2007, sulla piattaforma è possibile

condividere, da parte degli hosts, un alloggio con i viaggiatori previo un

pagamento.Al finedimassimizzare laprobabilitàdiaffittodiquestispazi,

Aribnbforniscealsuosecondsidelapossibilitàdiutilizzareunsoftwareche

calcola il prezzo ottimale a seconda del periodo e del tipo di alloggio

condiviso, il tutto gratuitamente. Anche in questa piattaforma troviamo i

classicimeccanismidiesternalitàpositiva.

Trivago nasce nel 2005 e fornisce ai viaggiatori che consultano questa

piattaforma la più grande scelta di hotel disponibile attualmente online.

Attraverso questo portale i gestori degli hotel hanno la possibilità di

mostrare le loro offerte, ma non solo: Trivago fornisce un software

chiamatoTrivagoHotelManagerchepermettedi customizzare,unavolta

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che il cliente ha scelto l’hotel in cui andare, l’offerta dell’hotel stesso

rispettoalprofilodell’utente.

Deliveroonascenel2013aLondra,loscopodelserviziofornitodall’azienda

èquelladiconsegnareciboadomiciliodiqualitàaiclientinelminortempo

possibile.L’aziendahailpienocontrollosullaqualitàeitempicheilservizio

richiede grazie al possesso della flotta di fattorini (i cosiddetti riders) e

grazie ad un sistema informativo estremamente sviluppato. Questi

elementicreanolapossibilitàdicontrollarecapillarmentetuttivaristepche

compongono una consegna. La cosa interessante è lo sviluppo, anche in

questo caso, di un vero e proprio servizio di consulenza verso i ristoranti

implementatograzieallagrandemoledidati fornitigli inconsciamentedai

clienti. Questo porta i ristoranti a richiedere talvolta l’accesso alla

piattaforma,ilqualenonèlibero, infatti iristorantivengonoselezionati in

baseallaqualitàdelprodottooffertoalfinedimantenereaimassimilivelli

l’immagine che Deliveroo trasmette ai suoi utenti. Questo porta così al

superamentodelleclassicheNetworkExternalities,inquantoseèveroche

periristorantipiùclienticisono,maggioreèilvaloredellapiattaforma,non

èveroilcontrario,inquantoaiclientilacosacheinteressamaggiormenteè

laqualitàdeiristoranti,pochiotantochesiano.

Attraverso questi casi è stato possibile capire quanto sia importante

l’implementazione di Value Added Services al fine di introdurre appieno

un’Innovation ofMeaning che non sia solo in grado di creare una nuova

“reason why” per i clienti, ma anche per i second side: è infatti

fondamentale, per una piattaforma operante in un Two-Sided Market,

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tenere conto di tutti e due i side del mercato, essendo così in grado di

declinarel’innovazionesututtiedueiversantidelsuomercato.

Nonessere in gradodi fare ciò significherebbe introdurreun servizio che

nel lungoperiodononrisulterebbeesseresostenibile, inquantoilsecond-

sideverrebbeamancare.

Un’altranota importanteva fattaariguardodeimeccanismicheregolano

solitamente l’introduzione di tali Value Added Services, molto è stato

scrittoriguardoalpricing,ossianelmodoincuisolitamentevieneregolato

ilprezzoperiduesidedopoaver“sussidiato”unodeiduecontaliservizi:è

importante notare come nel nostro caso questi siano completamente

gratuiti, ossia non vi siano variazioni di prezzo per nessuno, andando

solamenteadagiresulvalorepercepitodalgruppodiutentiinteressato.

Inultimo,analizzandosoprattuttoilcasoDeliveroo,abbiamopotutonotare

comel’InnovationofMeaningsiaingradodimodificareunodeglielementi

basilari su cui poggia tutta la struttura del Two-Sided Market, ossia le

NetworkExternalities:inquestocasocitrovaaconstatarecomenonvisia

piùlapresenzaditalimeccanismiinmanierapositivaebiunivoca,macheil

gruppodiutentiinteressatodatalefenomenosiasoloquellodeiristoranti,

andandocosìacreare,per i clienti,unaCross-NetworkExternalitychesia

basatanonsulnumeromaprincipalmentesullaqualità.Sipassaquindidal

classico“moreisbetter”al“morequalityisbetter”.

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1 IntroductionTechnology based innovations are changing the way we live: let’s just

considerforexamplethediffusionofsmartphone.By2019overathirdof

the whole world population will own one of these pieces of technology,

having thepossibility tocommunicatebetweeneachother inaquickand

unexpansive way and also having access to all the information given by

Internet, just think about how easy is to find an used Car, or to find

informationaboutRestaurantsandtheirMenus.

Oneofthemainconsequencesofwhatwesaidisthatnowadayspeopleare

able to trade with each other in an easier and quicker way, giving the

possibilitytonewtypeofbusinessestoborn,withtheaimtofacilitateand

regulatethesenewrelationships.

Figure1:SmartphoneUsageGrowth

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Thistrendbroughttwomainconsequences:

ThefirstoneislinkedtotheInnovationStrategy,thusnotonlyInnovation

on theproductsandservices,but Innovation in thecapability to innovate

too.Indeed,ifonceintroducingsomethingnewmeanttobringaproductor

service that could be new in the market and which was answering the

existingneedsofagroupofpotentialcustomers,whatishappeningtoday

isthatmanytimesthesameproductorserviceshouldanswertoneedsof

manydifferentsubjectsatthesametime.

Moreover,todayweareleavinginaworldinwhichtherealproblemisnot

tofindasolution,buttofindtherightone,socompanystrivingtosuccess

should not provide answers to customers’ questions, because everyone

else is doing so, but to create new needs in the users, in order tomake

themtofallinlovewiththeproductandservicecreated,thismeansbeing

abletogenerateanInnovationofMeaning.

ItcouldbetheexampleofApplewiththeAppleWatch:noonewasinneed

of such a piece of technology, but once the crowd started to try it, they

soon felt in lovewith it.This isbecausepeoplestartedto feelnewneeds

andnewreasonwhylinkedtotheworldofthewearabletechnology.

Thisisjustanormalexampleconcerningordinaryproducts,butwhatifina

industrysuchtheonewedescribedearlierthesameplatformshouldsatisfy

moregroupsofcustomersatthesametime?

Thesecondconsequencereliesonthestructurewhichisregulatingsucha

trend, inordertofacilitatetheinteractionsbetweenthesubjects involved

inthisnewmarket,newentitieshavebeencreated:TheOnlinePlatforms,

whichrelyontheTwo-SidedMarketstructure.Whatifacompanyisaiming

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to introducean InnovationofMeaning in suchamarket structure?What

aretheconsequencesofsuchanintroduction?

To better understand the situation, we decided to study the literature

underlying thiswhole new sector, thus Platform and Two-SidedMarkets,

butalsotheonelinkedtoInnovationofMeaning.

After this analysis,what came tooureyeswas that the researcherswere

blocked inasituationwhichwasquite farawayfromthereality, it seems

thattheyhaveneverbeenabletounderstandwhichkindofconsequences

hasthishugeamountofinnovationonmarketstructurewelldefinedsuch

asthePlatformsandtheTwo-SidedMarkets.

Theresult,wasthattheystatedreallywellthestructure,thedynamicand

the mechanism which are composing and regulating such a market, but

they have never been able to say how this field is developing, how it is

changing through the years with the entrance of new technologies and

moreingeneral,newwaystosharetheinformation.

Thiswas the trigger of this research, andwewill carry it on through the

study of five case studies of successful companywhich had been able to

introduceawholenewmeaningintheirsector.

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2 LiteratureReviewIntheLiteratureReviewthestateoftheartoftheliteratureisgoingtobe

analyzed,sothetopicswhichareinterestingforourresearch.

The chapter is divided into three main paragraphs, regarding the three

mainliteraturestreamsthatrepresentthestartingpointforthisresearch.

Firsttheinnovationofmeaningtheoryisgoingtobepresented,explaining

what a “new meaning” is, its role within the innovation strategy of a

companyandtheprocesstopursueit.

Then is going to be analyzed the history of the Platforms, trying to

understand their structure, theirmechanism,and themainactorsdealing

withthem.

At theend,whenwillbepossible to recognizeeach typeofPlatform, the

research will go on understanding the mechanism which are regulating

theirenvironmentbystudyingtheTwo-SidedMarkets.Thiswillbethemost

important part of the Literature Review, any pages are going to be

dedicatedtothestructureoftheseMarkets,thepricingstrategiesandthe

developmentofnewServices.

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2.1 InnovationofMeaning

MeaningInnovationisatrend-topicinthefieldoftheproductandservice

development. In thissectionwewill talkabout it, trying tounderstandas

firstwhatwasthewaytoworkbeforetheintroductionofthisnewtheory,

andhowthethingshavechangedafteritsintroduction.Attheendwewill

define the existing relationship between themeaning innovation and the

newtechnologiesintroduction.

2.1.1 DefinitionsandSettings

Designineconomicslandscapehasalwaysbeenmeantassomethingpurely

related to the aesthetic part of the products. However, lately, this is not

trueanymore:somethingischangingandDesignisenteringinfields,such

astheBusinessStrategy,inwhichjustsomeyearsagotherewasnospace

forsomethingwhichwasfeltassomethingtooclosetotheart.

Many academic journals, books and publishing articles showed the

importance of this topic in product development and business

performance,makingtheDesignManagementsomethingmoregrounded,

withamuchmorecomplexscientificresearchbase.

Aremarkableimprovementontheliteraturehasbeengivenbythetheory

of the user-centered design, in which a whole new way of developing

productshadbeenstudied, the focus indeed isnot theproductanymore,

but thecustomer,and theproduct isdesigned,engineeredandproduced

taking care of the point of view of the final user, so the real product

innovation is made observing their behaviors, asking their needs and

tracking their activities during the consumption process. This latter

observationofthecustomerisalsocalledEthnographicresearch,andthisis

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whathelpedmorethananythingelseinsurpassingtheclassicalviewofthe

design as “something to make cuter products” that comes from the art

world,andisproperoftheclassicaldesignerfigure.

We started with the analysis of the user-centered design to understand

howwas the situationbefore theentranceof thenewway to intend the

productsorservicesdevelopment.

Whatwearegoingtoanalyzeinthischapterisindeedsomethingthatgoes

beyondwhatwesaidtillnow.

Evenifusercentereddesign isavery importanttopic inthisfield, it’s just

one piece of the pie that contains all the possible way a firm has to

innovate.Itgoesbyitselfthatwehaveplentyofotherpossibilitiesand,one

of these, is completelyopposite to the firstonewesawand let the firms

that are successfully adopting it to become leader, and be worldwide

recognizedasradicalinnovators.

Wearetalkingaboutthedesign-drivenapproach,aprocesswhichexploits

superiorcapabilitiesofthecompaniesthatareadoptingit,andletthemto

create something which is completely new, able to redefine completely

whatwasthestandardintheindustry,workingonwhattheproductmeans

tothecustomers.

This approach does not start from customers’ analysis aswe saw for the

user-centered design, and it does not take care of their point of view,

indeed new products’ meanings are going to answer questions that are

sleeping inside the customerswho do not have defiantly any idea about

them.Theseneedscanbeidentifiedjusthavingabroadviewofthefuture,

withclearly inmindwhich is thesocioculturalcontextandhavingan idea

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onhow itwill change in the future.Design-driven innovation is pulledby

theownvision that the firmhasof theworldand thecontextandwhere

theyaregoinginthefuture(Verganti,2009),assoonasthisvisioncannot

bedefinedjustbylookingatthecustomerbehaviors,thisprocesshasfew

thingstosharewiththeuser-centeredapproach.

2.1.2 Design-DrivenInnovation

Oneofthemainissueswhentalkingaboutdesignisthedefinitionofdesign

itself, we will skip all the definitions linked to the art and architectural

world,goingdirectlytotheonethatbettercanhelpustounderstandwhat

we are talking about: ‘‘The etymology of design goes back to the Latin

de+signareandmeansmakingsomething,distinguishingitbyasign,giving

it significance, designating its relation to other things, owners, users or

gods.Basedonthisoriginalmeaning,onecouldsay:designismakingsense

(of things).’’ (Krippendorff,1989).Apart fromtheaestheticpointofview

with which a product is presented to the user, there are many other

aspectstotakeintoconsiderationsuchastheutilitarian,thesymbolicand

theemotionalvalue(Verganti,2008):

• Utilitarian:theproducthelpsdoingsomething

o E.g.:IwillbuyabottleofwaterbecauseIamthirsty.

• Symbolic:theproductmeanssomethingtome

o E.g.:BMWmeansworthywithoutbeingboringasaMercedes

couldbe.

• Emotional:theproductgivesmegoodemotion,goodfeelings

o E.g.: IwillbuyaMercedesbecausemy fatherusedtohave it

anditremindsmeabouthim.

23

The lattertwovalues,thusSymbolicandEmotional,arethereasonwhya

newproduct,withawholenewmeaning, isable tobesuccessful, indeed

research in marketing, consumer behaviors, and human being more in

general highlighted that the emotional and symbolic dimension of

consumptionareas importantas themerelyutilitarianaspect,and this is

trueevenforindustrialB2Bcustomers.

According towhathasbeen said till now, and thanks to thedefinitionof

design we found, we can say that innovation in design could be both, a

matter of functional utility or something deeper: the reason-why the

customersusetheproduct,themeaning.

Figure2:DimensionsofInnovation(Verganti2008)

24

Aswecanseeinfigure2,thankstothediagramprovidedbyVerganti,there

couldbeseveraldegreesof innovation inboththefields, itcouldgofrom

theincrementaltosomethingwhichbringsradicalimprovement.

In particular, something which incrementally or radically innovates the

functionalityoftheproductbringsmoreorlessgrowthintheperformance.

However,whentalkingaboutthemeaningthesituationisnotthateasyas

it was for the technology: an incremental improvement of the meaning

brings a fashionable product on themarket, it is a product that relies on

acceptedsocioculturalstandardsanditcouldbeseenassomethingcoolin

some ways because it is conceptualized following the common sense of

“beauty”,butitdoesn’tchangethereasonwhytheproductisusedbythe

finalcustomers.

Whentheproduct isable to triggernewneeds,whentheproduct isbuilt

followinganewvision,anditisabletoredefineitselftheconceptofbeauty

andutilitychangingwhatwasthecommonstandard,thenwearemoving

tosomethingthatradicallyinnovatesthemeaning.

Wehaveplentyofexamplesofradicalinnovationofmeaning,forexample

is quite difficult to understandwhy people nowadays buy candles: some

years ago you couldneed them inorder to avoid thedarkness in caseof

blackoutbuttodaythisisnotacommoneventualityanymore.However,in

spiteofit,nowadayscandlesaremainstreambecausepeoplechangedtheir

habits givingmore importance to theatmosphere, the smell, the relaxing

light: because of this change of meaning the consumption of candles

increasedalot,andfirmsthatwerethinkingtoleavethemarketcameback

in the business with products that are slightly different from their first

25

releasebecause thepurposeand themeaninghave changed through the

yearsaswesaw.That’sexactlywhathappenedtoYankeeCandlethatisthe

biggestcandlesproducerwithover44%ofmarketshare:theystartedlong

time agomaking candles against the darkness, but after the re-design of

theproducttheyhavebeenabletotriggerthenewneedsofthecustomers.

Nowadays they’re selling candles inside fruit jar (it’s impossible to use it

and see something in the dark) through shops that look more like food

shops, in order to give to the customers an idea ofwellness and healthy

values.

Peopledon’tbuythesekindofobjectslookingforagoodpricequalityratio,

but because they add their personal value to the product, aiming to find

emotionsmorethanthesimplelight.

The area of Verganti’s diagramwhich lies in the right part is exactly the

Design-Driven innovation, as we saw for the candles market is not

something that can quickly happen, it takes time for the crowd to

understand the change, and to understand what are the new elements

whichareatthebaseoftheinnovation,manytimesawholesociocultural

change is required to accept it, and it is not something that can happen

easily that’swhy,aswesawbefore,weare talkingaboutcompanies that

haveabroadviewonthesociety,andalongtermperspective.

Anotherimportantthingtopointisthatthemarket,whentalkingaboutthe

Design-Driven approach, is not given a priori, but is the result of

“discussion” between the customers and the firm, which are building

together new scenarios, new way of intending the sociocultural

26

environment: theproduct indeed isnottheanswertoapreexistingneed,

butitaimstocreatenewneedsthroughadialogue.

We said that this process is absolutely not pulled by theMarket, and is

something different from the technology evolution too. There are many

theorieswhich discussed about the differences between these latter two

waysofunderstandingtheinnovationand,attheend,whatisclearisthat

inordertoachievesomethingradicalinnovativethereistheneedtoevoke

a concrete technological radical improvement,becausebyonly lookingat

the market and its needs the companies will reach just an incremental

evolution.

Thisiswellexplainedbyanevolutionofthediagramwepreviouslysawin

figure 2, and gives us the opportunity do better define and compare all

thesethreewaysofinnovate.

Figure3:InnovationStrategies(Verganti,2008)

27

Inthefigure3wecanfindamappingandarecapofwhatwesaidtillnow,

inparticular:

• Design-Driven Innovation: the innovationprocessstart fromwhat is

subtle and not explicit, the company tries to anticipate the

socioculturaldynamicandprovidessolutionsthatarenotanswering

to any existing needs, but they are creating brand new ones by

changingcommonsenseandsocialstandards.

• Market Pull Innovation: also called User-centered innovations,

providesanswerstothequestionofthecustomersbyanalyzingtheir

needs, their behavior, their profile. It could be both based on

languageor technology, but at the end the result of the process is

somethingwhich keeps relyingon the same socio-cultural standard

asbefore.

• TechnologyPushInnovation:istheresultoftechnologicalevolution,

which isable tomove thebarrierof theperformance limits tonew

stepsandopensnewlandscapeforthefinalcustomers.

2.1.3 TechnologyEpiphanies

Oneofthebiggeststepforwardcouldbedonewhenaradicaltechnology

improvementisabletotriggernewneedsinthecustomers,thustomakea

newmeaningemerge.

Eachnewtechnologybringswithitselfthepossibilitytosatisfynewneeds

in the customers, some of them are merely the improvement of an old

technology,sothesubstituteofoldproducts,andtheonlyquestionsthey

28

can answer is the need that the customers have to strive for something

morepowerful.Othersarenotunderstandableatfirst,andareexploitedby

firmsthatareabletoseetheworldandthesituationfromadifferentpoint

of view, giving an interpretation of the new technologywhich is not the

standardone,thesecompanieswantstochallengethecommonsense,the

socioculturalenvironment,tryingtobringittoanewlevelredefiningwhat

thenewtechnologymeansforpeople.

When someone is able to reach this point, andmakes people agree that

whatitisdoneissensedandinteresting,givingthemanewreasontouse

the new technology, then a technology epiphany is put in place, and the

firmcouldbecomeextremelysuccessful,evenmarketleaders.

WewillprovideanexamplegivenbyVerganti:

“Think for example at the technology of quartz movements for watches

introduced in the late ‘70s. When quartz movements for watches were

invented, Japanese pioneering firms substituted them for the old

mechanical movements, but it was Swatch that eventually led the

competition by realizing that cheap movements allowed to redefine the

meaningofwatches:nottimekeepinginstruments,butfashionaccessories

that could be owned in multiple exemplars. Or think to the MP3

technology. It was interpreted by early adopters as a substitute for old

cassettesandCDstoimproveperformanceofportablemusicplayers:early

MP3players in1997wereconceivedassubstitutes foraWalkman. Itwas

Apple in 2001 that unveiled the quiescent meaning of MP3 technology:

allowing people to produce their own personal music through an entire

system: the iPod, the iTunes application, the iTunes Store, the business

29

model for selling music – that let people discover, taste, buy, store,

organize,and listen tomusic ina seamlessexperience” (Verganti,Design-

DrivenInnovation,page64).

It goes by itself that there are some important points to follow when a

companyiswillingtofollowthispath,wewillseethemnow.

ThefullpotentialofaTechnologyImprovementisexploitedjustifitcomes

sidebysidewithadeepchangeinthemeaning,theimpactonthemarket

otherwise would be almost irrelevant, and as soon as another company,

even a follower, associates new needs to the technology it will take the

leadershipof themarket,becausewith itsproductspeoplewill feelmore

“complete”.

Assoonasnewtechnologyemerges,inordertoexploitthefullpotential,is

fundamental toprovideanewmeaningassoonaspossible.Thequestion

towhichit’shelpfultoanswerare:

o Whatisthepossiblehiddenmeaningofthistechnology?

o Whatcouldbethefullpotential?

o Whatareother typesofusage that the customer canexploit

withournewtechnology?

As soon as the innovation, as we saw till now, is not just a matter of

technologyanymore,isfundamentalforafirmthattheR&Ddepartmentis

opened tonew stimuli, it is not just amatter of science and researchon

sometopic,butit’simportanttounderstandthesocietythepeopleandthe

newtrendsarising.

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2.2 Platforms

SincelongtimemanyresearcherslikeCusumanohavestudiedtheconcept

of Industry Platforms. They defined what it is, determined the main

elementsthatcomposeditandgaveitaproperstructure.Eversincemany

theories have been formulated about this topic. In this part we’re going

through these theories, in order to understandwhere to implement new

researcheswiththeaimofaddingfurtherknowledgetothisargument.

2.2.1 Definition

Firstofall, it is importanttounderstandwhatanIndustryPlatformis.The

definitions provided in the article “The Evolution of Platform Thinking”

(Cusumano, 2010), describe the main differences between a traditional

Productandan IndustryPlatform:therearetwofundamentaldifferences.

First,atraditionalproductprovidesacoretechnologythatacompanycan

reutilize in variety of products, similar to an in-house product platform,

whereas, an industry platform provides this potentiality as part of a

technology “system” whose components probably come from different

companies (or maybe different sections of the same company), that is

called“complementors”.

Second,withoutthesecomplementaryproductsandservices,theindustry

platformhas rather littlemerit toconsumers.For instance, theWindows-

Intelpersonal computeror a smartphone,without softwaredevelopment

toolsandapplicationsorwirelessmobile telephonyand Internet services,

are just boxeswith little or no value. Probably the firm that produce the

platformdoesn’thaveall the resourcesandcapabilities toprovideall the

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usefulapplicationsandservicesthatmaketheplatforms,suchasthePCor

thesmartphonesocompellingforusers(Cusumano,2010).

2.2.2 Platform’sActors

The next step aims to comprehend the possible types of characters in a

PlatformEcosystem,andthemainleverstodrivetheirdecisions.

For what concerns the possible characters, there are three groups

accordingtoCusumanoandGawer(2002):

• ThePlatformLeaders:Firmsthatinduceindustry-wideinnovationfor

a progressive system of separately evolved components of

technology.

• TheWannabes:Firmsthattrytostealtheleadershipandbecomethe

PlatformLeaders.

• The Complementors: Firms thatmake auxiliary products to enlarge

theplatform’smarket.

Whether the innovator is a Platform leader, a Wannabe or a

Complementor, it ispossible todistinguish four related leversofplatform

leadership that can be helpful for managers in strategy formulation and

implementation(CusumanoandGawer,2002):

• Scope:Scopeconstitutestheamountofinternalinnovationthefirm

doesandtowhatextentiturgesoutsiderstodo.Managersoffirms

who are platform leaders, or that tries to be (wannabes), should

assesifitismoresuitabletodevelopanextensivein-housecapability

to create their own supplements, let themarket produce them or

steerthemiddlecourse.

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• Product technology: Platform leaders and wannabes should decide

about thearchitectureofaproductand thewiderplatform, if they

arenotthesame.Particularly,theyneedtomakedecisionsaboutthe

degreeofmodularity theydesire,howopen their interfaces should

be and the amount of information about both platform and

interfaces needed to impart to outsiders who might become

complementorsorcompetitors.

• Relationships with external complementors: Managers have to

decideabout thedesired relationshipsbetweenplatformproducers

and complementors. They should determine how collaborative or

competitivetheywanttheserelationshipstobe.Platformproducers

shouldalsotrytoattractconsensusandmanagepotentialconflictsof

interest (for example, how they should react when switching to a

complementarymarketturnsformercollaboratorsintocompetitors).

• Internal organization: The proper internal organization helps

platformproducerstocontrolbothexternalandinternalconflictsof

interest.Organizationaloptionscomprise,first,havingallgroupswith

similar objectives controlled by one executive or separate them in

distinct sections if they have outside constituencies or possibly

conflicting targets; second, addressing organizational culture and

processes; third, enhancing internal association of corporate

strategy.Becauseofthevaguenessofinnovative,modularindustries,

a firm culture that spurs debate can accelerate strategy

reformulationwhenit’srequired.

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InordertocomprehendbetterthelinksbetweenthePlatformLeadersand

theComplementors, it’s importanttodistinguishbetweentwomaintypes

of platform that can be developed by a company: the internal and the

externalplatforms.

2.2.3 TypeofPlatforms

Goingdeeper in the analysis of theplatforms, it is possible todistinguish

severaltypeofit.Theinternalplatformsinwhichacompany,eitherworks

byitselforwithsuppliers,canformafamilyofrelatedproductsorseriesof

new features by deploying these components. The benefits that can be

brought by the development of Internal Platform are well explained by

Cusumano andGawer, they are the reasonswhy firms are often strongly

leadingtothissolution:reductioninfixedcosts;efficiencygainsinproduct

developmentthroughreutilizingcommonelementsand“modular”designs,

particularly, the capability to produce a large amounts of derivative

productswithrestrictedresources;andflexibilityinproductfeaturedesign.

Oneofthemaingoalsofplatform-basednewproductdevelopment isthe

capabilitytoincreasethevariationofproductsandfulfillvariouscustomer

needs,business requirements,and technical improvementwhile retaining

economies of scale and scope within production processes, an approach

alsoassociatedwith“masscustomization”.Fromaconcretepointofview,

it’s possible to see the main purposes that drive firms to adopt such a

product strategy are the savings in terms of increased product variety,

controlled high production and inventory costs, and reduced time to

market.AmongalltheInternalPlatforms,weshouldmakespecialmention

oftheSupply-ChainPlatforms,inwhichseriesofcompaniesfollowspecific

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instructions toprovide intermediateproductsandelements to theowner

of the platform or to the final product assembler. Another objective of

Supply-Chain Platforms is to enhance its efficiency and reduce costs

throughsystematicmodularcomponentsreuse.Acompanythathasaccess

toaSupply-ChainPlatformscangetmajorbenefitsandexternalpowersto

obtain more innovative or cheaper components and technologies.

Nevertheless, the companymight have less control over the components

andtechnology,whichhasitsownnegativeeffects(CusumanoandGawer,

2014).

Whenwe talkaboutExternalor IndustryPlatforms,we refer toproducts,

components,services,ortechnologiesthathavebeendevelopedbyoneor

morecompanies,andcanformthebasisforcreatingmorecomplementary

innovations formanyother firmsandpossiblyproducingnetworkeffects.

IndustryPlatformscanbesimilartoInternalPlatformsintermsofprovision

ofbasisforreusablecommonelementsandtechnologies,butfromanother

pointof view theydiffer cause thisbasis is “open” tooutside companies.

Thisopennesscanvary indifferentdimensions,suchasuseraccess levels

to data and information on interfaces to link to the platform or use its

capabilities,thekindofrulescontrollingtheuseoftheplatform,orcostof

access. External platforms can facilitate the production of very large

amount of complementary innovations by understanding the inventive

capabilitiesof apriori unconstrained seriesof external actors, and supply

thetechnologicalbasisessentialforinnovativebusinessenvironment.Since

the innovation skills in technologies (suchas ICT) aredistributed globally,

theconceptofindustryplatformsprovidesaneffectivemodelthatfacilitate

35

themanagement of investigation of possibleways for collaborative value

creationbuiltalongtechnologicalpaths(CusumanoandGawer,2014).

Aswesaidatthebeginning,theaimofthissection is tofindagap inthe

literatureinordertoprovideanareainwhichitispossibletodoresearch.

2.2.4 StrategiestoSuccess

Sofar,manythingshavebeendiscussedaboutthestructure,thetypesand

the main elements that characterize an Industry Platform, but few have

beensaidabouttheStrategytoadoptinordertoachievesuccessthrough

it. According to the literature the success of the Platform Strategy is

accomplishedbythreefundamentalfactors(BonchekandChoudary,2013):

• Connection:thesimplicityofpluggingintotheplatformtoshareand

transact.

• Gravity: the effectiveness of the platform in attracting participants,

bothproducersandconsumers.

• Flow:theeffectivenesstheplatformindevelopingtheexchangeand

co-creationofvalue.

InordertoenablethePlatformtoachievethesuccess,theyalsohadbeen

abletodevelopsomebuildingboxesthatmatchthepreviousthreefactors

easier:

• TheToolboxprovidesaconnectionbyhelpingotherstoplugintothe

platform easier. This basis facilitates the participants’ interactions.

For instance,AppleprovidesdeveloperswiththeOSandunderlying

code libraries; YouTube provides hosting infrastructure to creators;

Wikipediaprovideswriterswiththeinstrumentstocooperateonan

article;andJCPenneyprovidesstorestoitsboutiquepartners.

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• TheMagnetattractsparticipantstotheplatformbycreatingpullwith

a kind of social gravity. For transaction platforms, the presence of

bothproducers and consumers is essential to achieve criticalmass.

Apple requirementwas attracting both developers and consumers.

Similarly, eBay needed both buyers and sellers. Platform builders

need to take in consideration the design of incentives, reputation

systems,andpricingmodels.Theyalsoshouldexploitsocialmediato

usethenetworkeffecttogrowrapidly.

• TheMatchmakerpromotesthevalueflowbyprovidingconnections

between producers and users. Data is the most important part of

successful matchmaking, and differentiates platforms from other

business models. The Matchmaker catches worthy data about the

participants and uses that data to the maximum advantage to

provide connections between producers and users. For example,

Google pairs the supply and demand of online content, whereas a

marketplacelikeeBayleadsbuyerstoproperproducts(Bonchekand

Choudary,2013).

Parker, Van Alstyne and Choudary have made other contribution to the

Platform Strategy in the book Platform Revolution. According to them,

Platforms are designed one interaction at a time, starting from the core

interaction, which enables the connection between producers and users.

The core interaction is the most important activity that occurs on the

platform, we can define it as the essence of the platform, it is also the

reasonwhycustomersareattractedbyaPlatform,anditinvolvesthreekey

components:

37

• The participants: there are two main participants in any core

interaction, the producer, who produces the value, and the

consumer, who consumes the value. The same user might play

different roles, canbeaproducerora consumerdependingon the

typeof interactions. This is a notable featureof platformdesign.A

well-designedplatformfacilitatestheroleswitchingforusers.

• Thevalueunit:Aswe’vealreadymentioned,everyinteractionbegins

with an exchange of data that is valuable to the participants.

Therefore,thecoreinteractionnormallystartswiththeformationof

a value unit by the producer. A basis is provided for users to help

them to decide easier whether they want to proceed to further

exchangesornot.

• The filter: filters are thebases according towhich the valueunit is

deliveredtoselectedconsumers.Theplatformusesthefilter,which

is an algorithmic, software-based tool, to facilitate the exchangeof

propervalueunitsbetweenusers.Awell-designed filterguarantees

that platform users receive only relevant value units; a poorly

designed filter with irrelevant and valueless units might be

overwhelmingforusers.Itmaydrivethemtoleavetheplatform.

In designing a platform, the first and the most important task is to

determinewhatthecoreinteractionwillbe.Afterthatthedecisionshould

bemadeaboutdefiningtheparticipants,thevalueunitsandthefiltersthat

make such core interactions feasible (Choudary, Van Alstyne and Parker,

2016).

38

Aswe’veseeninthisbriefreviewonthestateoftheartoftheliterature,it

is easy to understand, for what concern this topic, little effort has been

madetounderstandwhichstrategyisbesttoemploywhenanewplatform

is rising, and where a manager should invest during the lifecycle of the

platformitself.

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2.3 Two-SidedMarkets

OncewehaveseenwhataPlatformis,wewillnowunderstandwhichkind

of rules are regulating it byunderstanding theMarket Structure inwhich

theyareoperating.

ThisStructureisthesocalledTwo-SidedMarket,aspecialenvironmentin

whichthecompanieshavetodealwithnot justonecustomerbut twoor

more. In this part we will understand first what it it, so definitions and

general information and thenwewillwrite about all themechanism and

thedynamicspresent.

2.3.1 DefinitionsandGeneralInformation

As we saw, thanks to the technologies introduced, themarket has been

redefined with structures that are linking together customer which are

operating in the samenetwork. These structuresareproductsor services

which are helping these subjects to facilitate their trades, by providing

themacommonplatformthroughwhichtheycanmeetinasocalledTwo-

SidedNetwork(Parkeretal,2006).

Whatmakes thesePlatform so really interesting to study is the fact that,

dislike the classical products or services, which have just one stream for

costand revenues, theyhave fromboth their sides thepossibility togain

revenues but also to face costs. This is because they are acting as a

facilitator of a trade which is happening between the two types of

individualsonboard.

Thissystemisworkingthankstothehighvalueoftheplatformforitssides,

whichismainlygivenbythephenomenonoftheNetworkEffect,thatisthe

40

effectof theusageofone individualsofaproductontheoverallvalueof

theproductitselfforotherpeoplewillingtouseit.

This is the case of the social network for example, when a customer is

willing to chose a social network, he will chose the one which is more

valuable for him, and the value is givenmainly by the number of people

whichareusingit.

TheexamplewesawreferstotheclassicalPositiveNetworkExternality,but

they could be also negative, for example with the congestion of the

telephonelines.

ThepresenceofsuchaNetworkExternalitycommonlyisenoughtodefine

the existence of a Two-SidedMarket, however Rochet and Tirole (2006)

provided another definition regarding the type of relationship that could

arisebetweentheplatformanditsusers,whichcouldbetheusageorthe

membership.

Theusageoftheplatformisaconsequenceofthevariablefees,whichare

affectingthewillingnessandtheamountoftradethetwo-sidearemaking

whilealreadymembersoftheplatform.

The membership of the platform is affected by the fixed fee, which are

determiningtheirpresenceonboardornot.Thechoiceregardingthesetwo

feesisvalidonlyifforthecustomersisnotpossibletotradeawayfromthe

platform,sojustifthefacilitationtheplatformisprovidingisrelevantand

morevaluabletothem.

These two types of definition give us the idea of a Two-SidedMarket as

whole. Indeed, when dealing with this market structure what is really

important is tohaveclearly inmindthatthepricingstrategy issomething

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whichshouldsatisfynot justonecustomer,buttwodifferentgroups,and

thatthenumberofeachgroupofcustomerisaffectingtheoverallvalueto

theeyesofotherusers.

2.3.2 PeculiaritiesofaTwo-SidedMarket

Aswesawevenintheintroduction,thetechnologynowadaysisdrivingthe

expansion of these platform, making them become more and more

dominantlately.

A lot of new fieldswere to create new businesses have been discovered

fromtheplatformdevelopers.Thispartwillfacethreechallengesthatare

keyforthePlatformoperatinginaTwo-SidedMarkettoreachthesuccess,

in particular the pricing, the competitionmanagement, and the threat of

envelopment.

Startingfromthelastone,thethreatofenvelopmentisrepresentedbythe

capability of a competitor platform to overlap its business to the one of

another company. It it quite common, in particular with new platform

enteringinamarketalreadypopulated.Asignificantdamagecanbedone

when the new entrant platform is covering the business of the other

platform with a bundle of services much larger, users can perceive that

more functionality is delivered at a lower total price. The answer of the

envelopedplatformisnotthateasytogive,becauseitisnoteasytoexpend

thebusinessprovidingnewservices,and it isnoteasy tocut thepriceof

theonlyserviceprovided,mostofthetimewhatisgoingtohappenisthat

the incumbent is forced to sell the business to the attacker or simply to

leavethemarket.

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Otheroptionsarelegalactions,whichcouldendupinsuccessthankstothe

fact that the law in Two-Sided Market is still not really clear. Another

possibility is tomergewithabiggerbrother,with theaim togainmarket

powerandliquidity.Thelastoptionistoleavetheoldbusinessmodeland

trytoestablishanewone,withalltheriskthatthisoptioncouldbring.

Itisfundamental,foraplatformdeveloper,tobeawareofthisrisk,andbe

alwaysalerttoenvelopmentattacks.Ontheotherside,companiestogain

even more success should be focused on the GAP left free by the

competitors, being quick enough to adapt their business to these

opportunities.

When a company should decide to fight for the success or when should

acceptthecollaborationwiththecompetitors?

The first important concept to understand is if there are economies of

scale,ifyes,companiesshouldalwaystrytomaximizethevolumesandto

do so they should fight, succeeding will bring the company to a huge

growth.Anotherimportantpointistounderstandwhetherthenetworked

marketismeanttobeservedbyjustoneplatformormore,sothedecision

inthefirstcasewillbefight,inthesecondonetocollaborate.

A platform accept to serve a Two-Sided Market when the multihoming

costs for at least one of its future two sides of the platform are high, in

order tobeable tomaketheplatformmuchmoreappealing in less time,

whentheNetworkEffectsarehighforatleastthesidewhichisexpensive

tomultihomeandwhenthe featuresprovidedby the futureplatformare

feltasenoughforthecustomer,sowhentheydonotneedabigplatform

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thatisprovidingthemlotsofuselessservices,butonewhichgoesstraight

tothepoint.

Thewhole control of themarketmeansmonopoly profits, but there are

several reasons why a company should be likely to share a platform in

particular lower competition and a biggest global market size, because

morecustomersaregatheredbymorecompanies.

Tobecompetitiveisnotjustamatterofcostordifferentiation,inparticular

whatisimportanttooistherelationshipwiththeendusers,thereputation

ofthecompany,andofcoursemoney.

First-moverbenefits canbe important inplatformbattles,butnot always

decisive especially when the market evolution is slow. In this case late

moverscanavoidpioneerspositioningerrors,adoptthe latest technology

or even finalize reverse engineering on pioneers’ products and win the

battleoncost.Moreover,inabattletocontroltheplatform,bothfirstand

latemoverswillsharethecommongoaltocollectusersassoonaspossible.

Thisurgencyusuallyisinfavorofthefirstmoverthatcancountonpositive

word-of- mouth. Sometimes this urgency could be a mistake: when a

business is readily scalable orwhen the funding of the company are not

enough to sustain “get big fast” strategies that often face boom or bust

valuationcycles.

The last aspect we are going to analyze is the one related to the price

management:thepriceforeachsideoftheplatformshouldbechosenby

theplatformmanagertakingcareoftheconsequencesthatthischoicehas

on theother side’s growth and enthusiasm. In a platformwe canusually

recognizethe“subsidityside”,thegroupofcustomerwhichishighlyvalued

44

bythe“moneyside”whichisthegroupofcustomerwillingtospendmoney

fortheproductsortheservices.

The“subsidityside” iscrucial tohaveonboard,because ithelps tocreate

thevalueoftheplatformitselfandtoattracttheotherside,makingthem

willingtospendmore.Moreover,the“subsidityside”isattractedifonthe

platformarepresentlotsofindividualsinthemoneyside,becauseitmeans

that there could bemorepeoplewilling to buy their product or services.

Ultimately,pricingismorecomplicatedby“same-side”networkeffects.

Defining the level of the pricing for both sides is not an easy matter,

becausetheprocessshouldtakecareofthemechanismwesawearlierand

alsoofotherdynamicswhichwewillexplain inthefollowing list,which is

providedbyEisenmannetal.(2006):

• Thepricesensitivityofusers

• Usersensitivitytoquality

• TheCostofOutput

• TheeffectsoftheSame-sidenetwork

• BrandValueoftheusers

45

2.3.3 OneSideValueAddedServices

To increaseprofit and togainmoreusers, aplatformoperating ina two-

sidedmarket couldbe likely todevelopnew featureor services investing

moneyinasideorintheotherone.

In this part we are going to analyze how a platformwhich is developing

suchanoperation,shouldorshouldnotbehavewiththecustomerofboth

side, in particularwe’re going to analyze the literature that talked about

theargumenteveniffewthingshavebeensaidsofar.

Firstofallweshouldpointoutthatthereisathresholdthatisdetermining

whether a platform should invest or not in VAS, when the marginal

investing cost is below this threshold the platformwill invest, when it is

above,theplatformwillstarttodecreasetheinvestment.

In particular, when the marginal investing costs are highly beyond the

threshold,thepricingfortheun-investedusersidecouldeitherincreaseor

decrease,but the interestingpart is that theprice for the investedside is

decreasing,ifwecompareittothestandardcasewherenoVASarebeing

developed,we see that in this case there is no a fixed law that links the

pricingmethod,thusforbothsidesthepriceisfreetoincreaseordecrease

accordingtothestrengthofthenetworkexternalitieseffects.

Moreover, if both the sides are priced higher after the investments, it is

possibletoobservethattheun-investedsideispricedevenhigherthanthe

investedone.

Earlier in the chapter we talked about subsidizing, in this case we can

observe that the VAS could be seen as a way to subsidize a side of the

market.

46

Incasethemarginalcostofinvestmentsincrease,couldbedifficulttofinda

waytorepaythe investmentsmade, thus itcouldbehelpful to lowerthe

price of the invested side in order to make the platform much more

appealing toahighernumberof “invested”customersand, thanks to the

cross-networkexternalities,beingabletogaincustomersintheun-invested

sidetoo.

It’simportantforaplatformtobeawareofthestrengthoftheexternalities

forboththesides,becauseitisawaytounderstandhowimportantarethe

sides of the platforms, in particular, for the side which is more likely to

valuetheplatformbasingonthenumberofindividualsonthesecond-side,

it’simportantleavethepriceequal,ontheopposite,thesidewhichismore

attractive for theothersideshouldbepriced lower tobeable to rise the

totalvalueoftheplatform.

47

2.4 IdentifiyingtheresearchgapandResearhQuesions

The literature on the Innovation ofMeaning is pretty clear when talking

about companies which are dealing with classical products and services

offered to a normal customer, but what if there are different kinds of

customersatthesametimewhendevelopingsomethingnew?

In the case of a Two-Sided Network the same product or service should

satisfymore characters at the same time, and it is hard that all of them

sharesthesameneedsandthesame“why”.

How is it possible for a company to introduce something radically new,

beingabletotriggernew“reasonswhy”foreachsideoftheirmarket?

Moreover, when such an innovation has been introduced, how the Two-

Sided Market’s dynamics will react when stressed by a Meaning

Innovation?

Therearetwomaindynamicswhichcouldbestressedmorethananything

else:thepricingandthemechanismwhichisatthebaseoftherelationship

betweenalltheactorsoftheplatform,thustheNetworkExternalities.

Many things have been said about the pricing, the researchers put lot of

effortinfixingruleswhichareregulatingthepricingstrategies,takingcare

of all the possible situation existing for a Two-SidedMarket, but not the

oneconcerningtheintroductionofanewtypeofInnovationofMeaning,so

it’snotsaidhowthepricingcouldvaryinthisspecificsituation.

Another importantaspect toanalyze ishowthe relationshipbetweenthe

sidesand theplatforms ischanging,howstrongare theexternalities, is it

possiblethattheywillchangeinpresenceofnewMeaningintheplatform?

48

Moreover,wetalkedabouttheValueAddedServices,will theybehelpful

tointroducethemeaninginnovation?Andaretheirpricinglogicsstillvalid

whentheyareintroducedtoadaptthenewgeneralmeaningtooneside?

Thetwomainquestiontowhichwewilltrytoanswerthroughthisresearch

arethusthefollowings:

“HowcanacompanyintroduceaMeaningInnovation

inaTwo-SidedMarket?”

and

“Howcaninnovationofmeaningchangethemechanismsthatruletwo-

sidedmarkets?”

49

3 MethodologyWhatwesawsofar inthepreviouschapters is thestateoftheartofthe

literatureregardingthetopicslinkedtothisthesis,thathelpedustofinda

GAPtoinvestigate.

In the following chapter the research methodology is going to be

presented,highlightingthestrategiesandmethodsthathavebeenusedto

reachtheaimofthisthesis.

Firstofall,theareaofinvestigationisgoingtobepresented,goingonitwill

bepossibletofindthesampling,sothecasesonwhichwewillfocus.Inthe

Data Gathering it is explained how the material collected during the

researchhasbeenfoundand,attheend,wewillfocusonhowweusedit,

andthetypeofanalysiscarriedon.

50

3.1 AreaofInvestigation

Wewill haveabroader viewon thewholeworldof theOnlinePlatforms

working in a Two-Sidedmarket, so we will see some cases of disruptive

MeaningInnovationappliedtodifferentsectorsoftheonlinemarket.

Whatiscommonbetweenallthesesectors,isthehugeInnovationtowhich

they have been undergone, thanks to the implementation of the online

marketindeed,theyexperiencedahugestepforwards.

Inparticular,thetwomaincharacteristicsofwhatwewerelookingforwere

Two-Sided Markets and the capability to introduce an Innovation of

MeaningfortheFirstSide.

It is important toanalyzesectorswhicharedifferentbetweeneachother

becauseithelpsustofindresultswhichcouldbebetterrepresentativeof

thewholeIndustrysituation.

Weselected fivedifferent industries,aswesaid, tohaveabetterviewof

thesituationasawholeand,withoneofthecases,wedecidedtogomore

indetails:theFoodDeliveryMarketbecause,aswesawatthebeginning,is

aboomingmarketwhereitisclearthatthenewcompanieshavebeenable

to generate a breakthrough reason why for the individuals of both their

sides,thehungrycustomersandtherestaurants,whichbroughtthisSector

to modify the dynamics present in the classic model of the Two-Sided

Market.

The Online Food Delivery market in the last years experienced a huge

growth, this is mainly due to the huge capital investment that Venture

Capitalists or Investment Founds put in place in the sector, giving the

possibilities to the companies present in the market to build up new

51

technologies and explore new scenarios, things that would have been

impossibletomakewithouthugeamountofmoney.

Wecansee it fromthe figurebelow: few investmentshadbeenprovided

between2012and2013butamarvelous$600.0millionhavebeengivenin

2014, which is exactly the yearwe found out as the trigger point of the

huge growth in terms of technology and meaning that the sector

experienced.

Figure4:InvestmentsprovidedtoFoodDeliverySector

52

So what is the reason why investors are putting somuch effort inside a

marketwhich,afterall, seemstobesaturatedby lotsof small companies

strivingtosuccess?

BasicallythemainreasonisthehugedimensionofthePietheyaregoingto

share, the Food Delivery market which is known for its $70 billion

dimension, is slightly far from being fully penetrated by the online

community, and that is what makes this sector so interesting for the

investors.

Indeed,aswecanseefromthefigurebelow,onlyabout$9billionsofthe

whole sector are online and all the others are still going with the “old-

fashion”way.

Inaworld,aswesaidbefore,inwhichoverathirdofthewholepopulation

ownsasmartphonethisisaninterestingpointbecauseitmeansthatthere

isahugespaceforgrowth.

Figure5:SizeofFood-DeliveryMarket

53

ThiswhatwecanfindintheresearchmadebyCowenandCompany:

Thepathwhichtheindustryisfollowingisprettyclear,andalltheexperts

tend to agree that the switch to online ordering in FoodDeliverywill be

completedinthenextfewyears.

Thekeytakeawayisthatwe’reintheveryearlystagesofabroad,secular

shifttoonline/mobileordering.Anditisthisparadigmshiftintheindustry

thatisthedrivingforcebehindallthedollarsbeingspentintotheindustry

as investors are just placing the bets on the company which, in their

opinion,isgoingtowintherace.

Figure6:OnlineFoodDeliverygrowth

54

3.2 Sampling

AccordingtoRobertK.Yin(1984),themainpurposeofacasestudiesisto

explaincausal links, so something that is repeating in several caseswhich

arenot linked inanywaybetweeneachother.Theyarehelpful,andthey

perfectlysuitour research,becauseweneedtounderstandtheevolution

of a sectorwhich is deeply affected by radical innovation, that’swhywe

decidedtobringsomecases tobetterunderstandthesituationandthen,

with one of them going in deep to understand if there had been a step

forwardintheevolution.

Whenthestrategyofthecasestudiesispreferredrespecttootherwayof

acting?Basicallywhentheresearchquestion,suchas inourcase, isbeing

posedasan“How”or“Why”andwhentherearefewpossibilitiesofhaving

acompletequantitativecontrolontheevents,sowhenitisnotcompletely

possibletohaveordevelopanumericalmodelofthesituation.

Five exploratory case studies are going to be analyzed, as previously

mentioned,tofill theGAPinthe literatureandtohavean ideaofwhat is

goingonintheOnlinePlatformIndustry,withtheaimtounderstandbetter

thetrendsandhavinganideaofthetopictobetteranalyze.

Thecaseswehavechosenarethefollowing:

CASE INDUSTRY NEWMEANINGPROPOSEDTOTHECUSTOMERSIDE

SPOTIFY MUSIC “Musicasadiscovery”

UBERBLACK TRANSPORT “TaxiasaluxuryExperience”

TRIVAGO TRAVEL “Travelchoiceassupermarket”

AIRBNB TRAVEL “Traveltofeelasalocalperson”

DELIVEROO FOODDELIVERY “FoodDeliveryasaRestaurantatHome”

Table1:MeaningInnovationinCaseStudies

55

Uber have been chosen because of their ability to create a gapwith the

competitorsbasedonachangeof thereasonwhythecustomersandthe

driversarelikelytochooseit.

TrivagoisthenumberonewebsiteforchoosingaHotel,anditisappealing

forthecustomernotforaparticularinnovationintroduced,butjustforthe

numberofthehotelspresent.

What theyhavebeenable todowas topropose themselves to thehotel

notjustasamarketingstrategy,butasaconsultingcompany,creatingday

bydaynewservicesandnewdata,developingthesocalledOneSideValue

AddedServices.

AirbnbandSpotifyareinterestingtousbecauseofthewayadoptedtosplit

the innovation on both the sides of their market: by creating an initial

changeofmeaningforthecustomersidetogain interest,andbycreating

ananotherandnewchangeofthereasonwhythebusinesssideislikelyto

choosethem.

Forwhatconcernthelastcase,soDeliveroo,theprimarysourcescollected

shouldhelpustomakeevenmorelightontheunexploredGAPwefound.

AfterthegeneralanalysisoftheOnlineFoodDeliveryPlatformMarket,we

sawthatthereweremanyplayersinsidethemarketandthatsomeofthem

were little companies operating in just one or two cities maximum. A

peculiarity of this market is that rich companies sustained by big

investments,inordertoexpandinnewregionsareMergingwiththesmall

onesalreadypresentontheterritory.

Inparticular,therearefourmainbigplayersinthemarket,allofthemare

multinationalCompaniespresentinthewholeEurope.

56

WedecidetochoosejustDeliveroobecauseitisthecompanythatsuitsour

researchcriteriabetterthanthealltheothercompaniesinthemarket,like

JustEat,UberEats,GlovoandFoodora:thefirstpointthatmadeusthinkit

was the right example to take,was the clear businessmodel, indeed the

competitors where not clear at all about it, mixing different businesses:

DeliverooisjustFoodDeliverycompanysoitisoperatinginjustoneTwo-

SidedMarket.

TheotherpeculiaritywewerelookingforwastheInnovation,soacompany

whichhadbeenabletobringsomethingradicallynewinitssector:

thiscompanyhasbeenthefirstoneabletointroduceawholenewwayto

intendthefooddelivery,aswesawatthebeginningFoodDeliveryisnow

sawassomethingmorelinkedtoapremiumservice,notjustanemergency

meal.

Deliveroo is a web-based Platform which, on the line of the other four

cases,havebeenabletosplittheinnovationonbothsides,providinganew

reasonwhypeoplearewillingtoorderfoodathome,anddevelopingOne

SideValueAddedServicestotherestaurant,makingitselflooklikemoreto

aConsultantthenadeliveryservice.

57

3.3 DataGathering

The research is developed mainly on secondary sources, thus articles,

websites,videosandsoon.

Thechoiceofthesourcestokeplacehavingclearlyinmindtheelementsof

theory we were looking for, thus Meaning Innovation and two sided

mechanisms.

Wegatheredalmostsixtysecondarysources,whichareshowninthetable

from12to17attheendofthethesisintheAttachmentchapter,whichwe

analyzedonebyonecarefullyandwewilldescribelateronintheResults.

ForwhatconcernedDeliveroo,wedecidedtosetupamuchmoreindepth

studybasedalsoon,primarysources.

Atthebeginning,toimproveourknowledgeontheindustry,wethoughtit

would have been interesting to collect somedata regarding theworld of

the Online Food Delivery services as a whole, in order to have some

feedbackfromtheoutsideonhoweachcompanyiscarryingontheactivity

insidesuchasector.

We had been able to interview the ItalianGeneralManager,whowas in

DeliveroofromtheverybeginningoftheirbusinessesinItaly,wemadetwo

interviews,bothofthemhelpedusreallymuchtoclearoutthesituationin

particularallthedynamicsregardingtheintroductionoftheserviceandthe

relationshipwiththesidesoftheplatform.

AftertheGeneralManager,weinterviewedtheItalianHeadofOperations,

hehadbeen chosenwith the aim tohelp us in understandingbetter the

mechanismwhicharelyingbehindtheplatform.Thisalsowouldhavebeen

agreatopportunitytoavoidbiasand,inthecasehewouldhaveconfirmed

58

theopinionof theGM,togivemorestrengthtoourtheorythankstothe

triangulation of the data gained, deleting the possibility of subjectivity in

theinterpretation.

All the interviews have been carried on in Italian,whichwas themother

tongue of the people wewere talkingwith, the results are almost three

hoursof tape recorded,andwewill see in the following chapterhowwe

managedsuchanamountofmaterial.

59

3.4 DataAnalysis

Withtheaimofbetterunderstandingourdata,assoonasthequantityof

materialavailablewasquitehigh,wedecidedtousetheCoding,whichisan

analyticalprocessthroughwhichispossibletocategorizethedatagivenby

theinterviewsandbythearticlesandcollectthemintoclusters.

Wewill followthemethodofthetwo-stepprocess inwhich ispossibleto

identify at the beginning the macro-topics, and during a second phase

dividingeachmacro-topicinsubareas,creatingclusterswithinfoprovided

byalltheinterviewswemadeandthearticleswestudied.

The coding was defined starting from the GAP we found during the

Literature Review, splitting thewhole ResearchQuestion into threemain

clustereachoneregardingoneofthemaintopicweanalyzed.

In the next picture it is possible to have an idea of the tree which is

composingouranalysis,eachofthecoderepresentonetopicdefinedbya

precisereferenceonwhichwewillinvestigatewiththedataavailablefrom

theinterviewsandthesecondarysources.

Oncewewillbedone,wewillhaveallourinformationclusteredinamatrix

withthecodeononeside,andthecompanynameontheother,soitwill

muchmoreeasyforustounderstandtheresultsoftheresearch.

WetookinspirationfromthemethodologyprovidedinthearticleofMiles

andHuberman(1984).

60

Figure7:CodeTree

61

3.4.1 Platforms

Concerning the platforms, we would like to identify which are the main

actorsdealingwiththisentity,andwhichisthemostimportantinteraction

facilitatedbytheplatform.

Thishelpsustoconfirmthatweareactuallytalkingabouttherighttopic.

Inside thismacro-topicwe identified thus twomain sub-areas,which are

the actors linked by the platforms so the sides linked, and the type of

connection facilitated by the platforms itself, so the peculiar service

providedbytheplatform.

3.4.2 Two-SidedMarket

Thetwosidedmarketarethemainpartofthecoding.

WestartedanalyzingtheTwo-SidedMarkets’dynamicsregardinghowthe

second side is managed, thus analyzing the choice criteria for the

Restaurants, trying to see if there is somethingwhich isbreaking through

thefamoussentences“themore isbetter”or“the less isbetter”.Wewill

triangulatethispreviouscodewiththenumbersoftheindividualspresent

in the business side of each firm, giving some more strength to the

hypothesis.

AtthispointwewillunderstandiftheclassicalNetworkExternalitieswhich

are well described in many papers and sources are still valid or not, so

understanding the type of relationship which is linking the sides of the

platforms.

Attheend,wewanttounderstandwhicharethepricingpolicy,iftheyare

closeornottothepricingdynamicswhicharegenerallyregulatingthetwo

62

sidedmarket and in whichway they are varying in relationshipwith the

introductionofOneSideValueAddedServices.

3.4.3 InnovationofMeaning

ForwhatconcerntheMeaning,themostimportantpoint istoclearoutif

effectivelytherehadbeenaradicalinnovationornot.

To do so we decided to analyze carefully the old reason why customers

werechoosingaplatforminsteadofanotherandwewilltrytounderstand

whicharethenewneedscreatedbythenewplatform,thusthenewreason

why that ismaking thecustomersand the restaurants toswitch fromthe

oldplatformstothemostinnovativeones.

Attheend,tocompletetheanalysis,wewouldliketounderstandinwhich

waythetechnologyhelpedinthisswitch,soifaTechnologyEpiphanytoke

placeornot.

CODE REFERENCEOLDREASONWHY (Verganti, 2008)

NEWREASONWHY (Verganti, 2008) TECHNOLOGYEPIPHANY (Verganti, 2006) PLATFORM“ACTORS” (Evans and Schmalensee,2007)

INTERACTIONFACILITATED (Eisenmann et al, 2006)

NUMBEROFSECONDSIDE (Rochet and Tirol, 2006)

SIDES’RELATIONSHIP (Eisenmann et. al., 2006)

PRICINGTHEPLATFORM(Rochet and Tirol, 2003)

(Rochet and Tirol, 2003)

VAS (Dou and Xu, 2016)

Table2:CodeReferences

63

4 ResultsWe analyzed a series of cases which will be helpful for us in detecting

macro trends inside theOnline Platforms Industry, in this sectionwewill

present each one of these cases trying to understandwhy theywill be a

goodexampleandhow they canhelpus inbetterunderstand theOnline

Platformsituation.

4.1 Spotify

Spotify is an online music service which offers streaming on demand of

albums provided by severalmusic companies such as Sony, EMI,Warner

andUniversal.LaunchedinOctober2008fromtheSwedishstartupSpotify

AB, the platform reached 75 millions of users in just seven years. In

September2016hadbeenabletoreach40millionsofuserwillingtopay

fortheservice.Itisaworldwideservice,availableinalmostthirtycountries

intheworld.

Themusiccouldbeorganizedbyartist,album,company,typeorplaylist,in

ordertogivethepossibilitytothecustomertofindalwaystherighttrackto

play.

Twotypesofsubscriptionarepossible,thefreeonewillgivethepossibility

tothecustomertostartlisteningtotheirfavoritemusicwithoutpayingbut

forcingtolistentoadvertisingbetweenatrackandtheother,thepremium

service is free from this fact, and makes possible to the customer to

download theplaylistsoffline inorder tomake themplayableevenwhen

thereislackofinternetconnection,moreoverpremiumcustomer’smusicis

streamedtoahigherquality.

64

Spotify could beusedon several devices, such as smartphones, consoles,

computersandsmarttelevisions.

The huge dimension of the music catalogue is one of the main success

factorofthiscompany,anditisforsurethehardestchallengeforSpotifyto

keepitalwaysupdate.

Thebusinessmodelisquiteeasyanditisbasedontheconcept“themore

isbetter”:themorecustomersareusingtheplatform,themoreinteresting

istheplatformfortheLabels,andviceversa.

IntheFigure8,itispossibletoseehowSpotifyworks:

• TheNetworkExternalitiesinred,arepositiveforboththesides.

• Apartfromthemainservicesprovidedtothecustomersandtothe

second side (navy arrow), there is the collection of data and the

consequentservicebuiltonit(reddata/VASarrow).

• TheInnovationofMeaningisconsequentlydeclinedonboththeside

throughtheserviceshighlightedbythegreyarrows.

WhatmakesSpotifysoreallyinterestingforus,istheservicesprovidedfor

both sidesand theway theyhadbeenable tochange themeaning:after

Figure8:MeaningInnovationinSpotify

65

having presented their new idea of business,which is for sure disruptive

becausetheyhadbeenable tocreateawholenewneed in thecustomer

mindgivingthemthepossibilitytodiscoverthemusicworldforfreewhich

was something that it was not possible before, they had been able to

convincetheLabels tobemore likely toaccept the introductionofanew

competitorbypayingthemfeesbut,moreover,withaseriesofconsultancy

serviceslinkedtothehugeamountofdataattheirdisposal(seethearticle

“Big music data streaming YouTube and Spotify” linked in Table 14), in

particularwiththeservice“SpotifyArtists”.

Basically,allthedataprovidedbythecustomerswhilelisteningtoasong,in

termsofmusicalpreferences,locations,trendsandsoonandsoforth,are

clustered,analyzedandsoldtotheLabelsordirectlytotheArtiststoinform

themonwhatthepeopleislikelytolistenandchoose.

They will have access to a huge database, in which they can find

informationaboutthetrendsoccurring,buttheycanalso leverageonthe

playlistsmadebySpotifyinordertoboosttheactivityofsomeartists(see

thepage“Artist.Spotify.com”linkedinTable14).

SPOTIFYRECAP

NewMeaningCustomerSide

The NewMeaning relies on the possibility of the customers todiscover themusicwithoutbeing forced to spendmoneybuingcompactdiscs.Thus“MusicasaDiscovery”

DataGathered TheDatagatheredfromthecustomersideareallabouttrendsinmusic,andinformationaboutthecustomers.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

With these Data it is possible for Spotify to provide strategicinsighttoLabelsandArtistsinordertocreatemusicwhichcouldbemoresuccessful.

Table3:SpotifyRecap

66

4.2 Airbnb

It is an Online Platform which is linking people who are looking for an

accommodation to stay abroad for short periods,with peoplewho owns

andarewillingtoshareanextraspacewiththeguests.

TheCompanyhavebeenfoundedin2007,injustnineyearshavebeenable

to reachalmost34000cities in192countriesallover theworldwith two

millionsofaccommodationsavailable.

The accommodations which are possible to find on the platform are the

mostdisparate:fromthesmallroomtowholecastles,goingthroughflats,

igloo,boatsandislands.

Theguestscanscrollbetweenall theopportunitiesgivenbytheplatform,

andoncetheyhavechosentherightone, it ispossibletopaythehostby

creditcard,inordertoavoidfraudormisunderstanding,moreover,inorder

to increasethereliabilityoftheservice,aratingsystemisappliedtoeach

sideoftheplatform,providingthemaximumleveloftransparencybetween

theparts.

ThemainrevenuestreamofAirbnbarethefeestheyarechargingtoeach

transactionhappeningontheplatform,whicharegoingfromthe6%tothe

12%,dependingonthetotalamountofthereservationprice.

As in Spotify case, herewe are in front of a huge innovation ofmeaning

too. Indeed,thereasonwhypeoplearetravelling isskippedtosomething

morelinkedtotheuseandbehavioroftheplacetheyaregoing,theywant

tofeelastheinhabitantoftheseplacesarefeeling.

Another remarkable point is the development of One Side Value Added

Servicesforthehost like, forexample,thedynamicpricingalgorithm:this

67

toolprovidestotheHostreliablesuggestionsaboutthepricing,givingthem

theopportunitytomaximizetheirprofittakingcareofthevariationofthe

probability to rent the space when the price they want to set for their

accommodationischanging(seethearticles“AirbnbopensourcingAirflow,

Aerosolve for machine learning, data discoveries” and “Airbnb’s pricing

algorithmandAerosolve, itsopen-sourcemachine learningtool” inTable

linkedinTable17).

It’s importanttohighlighthowthistool is freeforthemand it is, insome

ways a proper free consultant for their experience, built through the

utilization of the data provided by the customer with their own choices

throughthewebsite.

Figure9:MeaningInnovationinAirbnb

68

IntheFigure9,itispossibletoseehowAirbnbworks:

• TheNetworkExternalitiesinred,arepositiveforboththesides.

• Apartfromthemainservicesprovidedtothecustomersandtothe

second side (navy arrow), there is the collection of data and the

consequentservicebuiltonit(reddata/VASarrow).

• TheInnovationofMeaningisconsequentlydeclinedonboththeside

throughtheserviceshighlightedbythegreyarrows.

AIRBNBRECAP

NewMeaningCustomerSide

TheNewMeaningreliesonthedesireofthetravelerstofeelasanhabitantoftheplacetheywanttotravel,withAirbnbyoucan“traveltofeelasalocalperson”.

DataGathered The Data gathered from the customer side are about thepreferencesandthewillingnesstopay.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

WiththeseDataAirbnbcreatedthealgorithmAereosolve,whichhelps the hosts to make choice in pricing which can maximizetheirprobabilitytorentthespace.

Table4:AirbnbRecap

69

4.3 Uber

Theplatformprovidesaprivatetransportationservicewithcarsthroughan

application for smartphones which links passengers and drivers. At the

beginningitwaspossibletorentthecarjustwithatextmessage,laterthe

main method to rent a car became the geo-localization through the

smartphoneapp.

ThepricingsystemissimilartothenormalTaxione:ifthespeedofthecar

ishigherthan17km/hthepricewillvaryaccordingtothetime,ifthespeed

is lower than this threshold the price is calculated according to the total

distancecoveredduringthetrip.

There are several categories of vehicle available for the customers, from

thecitycartilltheluxurysupercar,therequeststhatUberisaskingtoits

driversareaminimumageof21years,acarnotolderthaneightyears,a

minimumoftenpointsonthedrivinglicense.

Figure10:MeaningInnovationinUber

70

IntheFigure10,itispossibletoseehowUberworks:

• TheNetworkExternalitiesinred,arepositiveforboththesides.

• Apartfromthemainservicesprovidedtothecustomersandtothe

second side (navy arrow), there is the collection of data and the

consequentservicebuiltonit(reddata/VASarrow).

• TheInnovationofMeaningisconsequentlydeclinedonboththeside

throughtheserviceshighlightedbythegreyarrows.

Inorder toprovidea valuable service for the customers,Uber is likely to

offeradditional services for thedrivers inorder tokeep the levelof their

carsalwaysat the top, suchas free revisionsof thevehicle, freewashing

service and so on and so forth, these services are all for free, and they

makesurethatthecustomerswillappreciateatthemaximumtheservice

(seethearticles“TheAmazingWaysUberIsUsingBigData”and"Uberthe

bigdatacompany”linkedintheTable16).

UBERRECAPNewMeaningCustomerSide

TheTaxiisnotseenasjustacomfortablewaytomoveinthebigcities,nowit’saproperluxuryexperience.

DataGatheredThe Data gathered from the customer behavior helps thesoftware to move the drivers in order to improve theirexperience.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

The VAS developed for the second side are linked to themaximizationof their income thanks to suggestiononwhere tomove,andtothemaintenanceofthecarattoplevelofquality.

Table5:UberRecap

71

4.4 Trivago

TrivagoisaGermanmultinationalcompanyoperatinginthefieldofhotels,

lodgingandmetasearch.It isasortofsearchengineforhotels,andithad

beenthefirstEuropeanplayerinthiskindofbusiness.

The business model is based on the classical cost-per-click indeed,

according to one of its founder: "Trivagomakesmoney from advertising

partners. You cannot book with us. We are an independent information

resourcefortravelers.Weworkwithawiderangeofindustrysuppliersand

bookingagents".

Themainrevenuecomesindeedfromthebookingsites,whichpaysTrivago

foreachcustomerwhichisredirectedontheirwebpagebytheplatform.

Fromonesidetheyhavethecustomers,whicharelookingforinformation

about hotels and travel destinations. On the other side there are the

Hoteliers,whicharepayingtobeonthisplatformandtoshowtheiroffers

tryingtoreachasmanypeopleasthesitecanreach.

Figure11:MeaningInnovationinTrivago

72

IntheFigure11,itispossibletoseehowTrivagoworks:

• TheNetworkExternalitiesinred,arepositiveforboththesides.

• Apartfromthemainservicesprovidedtothecustomersandtothe

second side (navy arrow), there is the collection of data and the

consequentservicebuiltonit(reddata/VASarrow).

• TheInnovationofMeaningisconsequentlydeclinedonboththeside

throughtheserviceshighlightedbythegreyarrows.

ThestructureofthisTwo-Sidedmarketisfollowingagainthetheoryof“the

moreisbetter”aswesawinthepreviewsexamplestoo:themoreHoteliers

arepostingoffersonthewebsite,themoretheplatformisgainingvaluefor

thefinalcustomers.

AgreatremarkablepointisgivenbytheTrivagoHotelManager,whichisan

additional service givenbyTrivago to its business side throughwhich the

Hotelsareabletogaininformationaboutthecustomerstheyaregoingto

serve in the future, consequently they can adapt their Rooms or the

services theyuse to provide to thedifferent types of customers they are

planningtohave(seethearticle“TrivagoHotelManager,utile,gratuitoe

potente”andthepage“HotelManager”linkedinTable15).

TRIVAGORECAPNewMeaningCustomerSide

Theplatformprovides to travelers anextremely large choiceofpossibledestination:itislikeasupermarketoftravels.

DataGathered The customers provide data regarding their habitudes, theirtastesandtheirexpectationfromthetrips.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

TheVASarealllinkedtothecustomizationoftheservicebythehoteliers, in order to better match the expectation of thetravelers.

Table6:TrivagoRecap

73

4.5 Deliveroo

ItisaBritishcompanywithoperationsallaroundtheworld.

The company have been founded in 2013 in London, and as soon as the

ideahadbeenpresentedtotheinvestorslotsofVentureCapitalistdecided

toprovidemoney,arrivinginthreeyearstocollectmorethanhalfabillion

ofdollarswithwhichtheystartedtoimprovetheirpositionfirstinEngland,

thenEurope,andthenagainallaroundtheworld.

It aims to link top quality Restaurants with customers in a quick and

unexpansiveway, the choice of the business side is limited only to these

customers which are able to satisfy high standards of quality. Once the

RestaurantisontheplatformitwillenjoyaseriesofValueAddedServices

provided in a customized way by the platform, indeed the real driver of

choice in this Industry is not the price, according to what the General

Manager told us in the interviewwhat reallymakes the difference is the

capability of the platform to transmit share this common feeling that

whateverwillbethepricepaid,thequalityoftheservicewillbeatthetop.

Forservices,wemeanallthesetypeofactivitieswhichtheplatformusesto

provide to its business side, such as the development of marketing

activities,consultanciesonthepackagingforthedeliveryand,withallthe

data available collected from the final customers, providing useful

suggestiononthestrategytoadoptandonthechoicestomake.

Whatreallycomesout fromthe interviewsmade inTEAL, is the ideathat

the pricing strategies are far away from being important, what really

matters is thequalityof theValueAddedServicesprovidedwhich let the

platformtobe innovativeandsoappealing to thebusiness side too, thus

74

beingable to change themeaning forboth the sidesandnot just for the

finalcustomers.

Moreover,whatispossibletohighlighttoo,istheabilityoftheplatformto

movetheparadigmofthetypicalnetworkexternalitiestosomethingnew:

the idea is that the utility of the whole customer side is completely not

linkedtothenumberoftheRestaurants,inanyway,butitislinkedtotheir

quality,thusasortof“themoreisthequality,thebetteritis”.

InMilan,indeed,theyhavemoreorless600partnershipswithrestaurants

of all kind, from the Italian cuisine till the Japanese one, the common

characteristicofalltheselocalsisthequality,whichisalwaysatthetop.

Figure12:MeaningInnovationinDeliveroo

75

IntheFigure12,itispossibletoseehowDeliverooworks:

• TheNetworkExternalitiesinred,arepositiveforboththesides.

• Apartfromthemainservicesprovidedtothecustomersandtothe

second side (navy arrow), there is the collection of data and the

consequentservicebuiltonit(reddata/VASarrow).

• TheInnovationofMeaningisconsequentlydeclinedonboththeside

throughtheserviceshighlightedbythegreyarrows.

Allthefirstfourcaseshavebeenanalyzedjustthroughsecondarysources,

trying to understand which are the main trends occurring in the Online

Platformworld.

The first main remarkable point is the strong presence of the typical

ExternalitiespresentintheTwo-SidedMarkets:inthiscasetheyarealways

positive,sothemore individualsarepresent inoneside,thehigher isthe

valueoftheplatformfortheindividualspresentintheoppositeside.

Another important remark is the one given by the development of

secondaryservices,alsocalledValueAddedServices,which insomecases

areslightlyfarfromthecoreservicesusuallyprovidedbytheplatforms,but

thanks towhich thecompany isable todeclineandmodify the“general”

innovationofmeaningonbothsides,makingitdesirableforboththetype

ofusers.

Thisissomethingwecanfindeveninthelastcase,Deliveroo,andwhichis

confirming our thesis, so that developing an innovation ofmeaning on a

product/servicewhichshouldservemorethanonecustomerissomething

muchmorecomplexthantheusual:inparticular,theinnovationhastobe

76

dividedintwomainsub-innovations,andeachofthemshouldbeappealing

foroneofthetwosidesoftheplatform.

Moreover,whatcametooureyesstudyingDeliveroo,isthattheInnovation

ofMeaningcreatedthroughthedevelopmentofValueAddedServicesfor

the second side, had been able to trigger the destruction of the classical

NetworkExternalities,wewillseehowinthenextchapter.

DELIVEROORECAP

NewMeaningCustomerSide

Theplatform,withthequalityoftherestaurantprovided,madethe customer skip the old paradigmof the FoodDelivery as anEmergency,toFoodDeliveryasaRestaurantathome.

DataGathered The customers provide data regarding their habitudes, theirtastesandtheirexpectationfromthefoodtheywanttoreceive.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

The VAS are all linked to the strategy, the marketing, and thepackaging of the food. The platform act as a consultant on allthesetopics,thankstotheDatacollected.

Table7:DeliverooRecap

77

4.6 RecapDELIVEROORECAP

NewMeaningCustomerSide

The platform, with the quality of the restaurant provided, made thecustomerskiptheoldparadigmoftheFoodDeliveryasanEmergency,toFoodDeliveryasaRestaurantathome.

DataGathered Thecustomersprovidedataregardingtheirhabitudes,theirtastesandtheirexpectationfromthefoodtheywanttoreceive.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

TheVASarealllinkedtothestrategy,themarketing,andthepackagingofthefood.Theplatformactasaconsultantonallthesetopics,thankstotheDatacollected.

TRIVAGORECAPNewMeaningCustomerSide

The platform provides to travelers an extremely large choice ofpossibledestination:itislikeasupermarketoftravels.

DataGathered Thecustomersprovidedataregardingtheirhabitudes,theirtastesandtheirexpectationfromthetrips.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

The VAS are all linked to the customization of the service by thehoteliers,inordertobettermatchtheexpectationofthetravelers.

UBERRECAPNewMeaningCustomerSide

TheTaxiisnotseenasjustacomfortablewaytomoveinthebigcities,nowit’saproperluxuryexperience.

DataGathered TheDatagathered fromthecustomerbehaviorhelps thesoftware tomovethedriversinordertoimprovetheirexperience.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

TheVASdevelopedforthesecondsidearelinkedtothemaximizationof their income thanks to suggestion on where tomove, and to themaintenanceofthecarattoplevelofquality.

AIRBNBRECAP

NewMeaningCustomerSide

The NewMeaning relies on the desire of the travelers to feel as anhabitantof theplacetheywanttotravel,withAirbnbyoucan“traveltofeelasalocalperson”.

DataGathered TheDatagathered fromthecustomersideareabout thepreferencesandthewillingnesstopay.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

WiththeseDataAirbnbcreatedthealgorithmAereosolve,whichhelpsthe hosts to make choice in pricing which can maximize theirprobabilitytorentthespace.

SPOTIFYRECAP

NewMeaningCustomerSide

TheNewMeaningreliesonthepossibilityofthecustomerstodiscoverthemusicwithoutbeing forcedtospendmoneybuingcompactdiscs.Thus“MusicasaDiscovery”

DataGathered The Data gathered from the customer side are all about trends inmusic,andinformationaboutthecustomers.

ValueAddedServiceSecondSide

WiththeseDataitispossibleforSpotifytoprovidestrategicinsighttoLabels and Artists in order to create music which could be moresuccessful.

Table8:GeneralRecapoftheCases

78

5 DiscussionInthediscussionwewilltrytoanswertoourresearchquestionthroughthe

datacollectedduringourpath.

In particular, we will understand if, after a Meaning Innovation, the

mechanism present in a Two-Sided Market are still valid or not, but, in

ordertodoso,wehavetounderstandhowitispossibletointroducesucha

type of disruptive changewhen the customer is not just one, but twoor

moreatthesametime.

StartingfromthedefinitionoftheMeaningInnovation,wewillunderstand

how it is possible to introduce it in a Two-SidedMarket, afterwewill be

donewith this,wewill understand how this ismodifying themechanism

andthedynamics insidesuchanenvironmentwithparticularattentionto

thepricingdynamicsandthenetworkexternalities.

When introducinganewproductorservice inthemarkettherearemany

aspectstotakeintoconsiderationinordertocreatesomethingwhichcould

be desirable for the users, and so successful, such as the utilitarian, the

symbolicandtheemotionalvalues.

The lattertwovalues,thusSymbolicandEmotional,arethereasonwhya

newproduct,withawholenewmeaning,isabletobesuccessful.

Indeed,researchinmarketing,consumerbehaviors,andhumanbeingmore

in general highlighted that the emotional and symbolic dimension of

consumptionareas importantas themerelyutilitarianaspect,and this is

trueevenforindustrialb2bcustomers.

79

Accordingtowhatwesaidtillnow,andthankstothedefinitionofdesign

wefound,wecansaythatinnovationindesigncouldbeboth,amatterof

functionalutility,somethingmoredeepasthemeaning,orboth.

The first interesting remark of this thesis is the way an Innovation of

Meaning should be introduced in an environment such as a Two-Sided

Market,wheremanagersshouldtakecarenotjustofonetypeofcustomer,

buttwoormore,eachofthemwiththeirownrequestswhichcouldbevery

differentfromeachother.

In all the Exploratory Cases it had been possible to observe how this

problemissolvedbythecompanies:throughtheimplementationofValue

Added Service so trying to change at least for one side “the rules of the

game”,givingtothissidethepossibilitytoexperiencesomethingradically

newirrespectivetowhatwasalreadypresentinthemarket.

Itseemsthat, inparticularfortheSecondSide,theOneSideValueAdded

ServicesarethekeytointroduceDisruptiveMeaningInnovationsandsoto

gaintheattentionofthisside,makingthewholegeneralIdeaofInnovation

feasible.

Let’s try to thinkaboutDeliveroo: the company introducedanew reason

why for the final customer, indeed the meaning is skipped from “Food

Deliveryasanemergencymeal”to“FoodDeliveryasRestaurantathome”,

bringing the company to reach a big success between the individuals

presentinthecustomers’side.

Whathadbeenharderwastoconvincealltherestaurantsaboutthequality

oftheservice,abouttherealvaluethatwasbehindthisidea.

80

Todo sowhat really helped theplatformwas the capability to introduce

newadditional services, thatmade the reasonwhy thebusiness sidewas

willingtochooseaplatformmorethantheotherchange.

InthisphasewedecidedtotakeasanexampletheFoodDeliveryMarket,

becauseistheonewehadbeenabletostudymoreindepth,howeverwhat

wewroteisvalidforalltheothercompaniesstudiedtoo.

Another remarkable point is given by how these One Side Value Added

Servicearemanaged:theliteraturesofarsaidfewthingsaboutthistopic,

andmainlyallofthemlinkedtothepricingstrategy.Inparticularthemain

mechanism highlighted is depending by the variation of the marginal

investingcosts, if it ishigh,thepricingfortheun-investedusersidecould

eitherincreaseordecrease,buttheinterestingpartisthatthepriceforthe

Figure13:ChangeintheReasonWhy

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investedsideisdecreasing,ifwecompareittothestandardcasewhereno

ValueAddedServicesarebeingdeveloped,weseethatinthiscasethereis

nofixed lawthat linksthepricingmethod,thusforbothsidestheprice is

free to increase or decrease according to the strength of the network

externalitieseffects.

Moreover, if both the sides are priced higher after the investments, it is

possibletoobservethattheun-investedsideispricedevenhigherthanthe

investedone.

Thislaw,givesustheideathatbehindthismechanismthereisaregulation

policy that is controlling the pricing methods in presence of this kind of

investments.

However,whatwecouldobserveinallourCases,anditwasconfirmedby

all the interviewsmade inDeliveroo too,was that even if theOne Sided

ValueAddedServices arebuilding thebiggestpart of the interest for the

business side, there is absolutely no reflection of this fact in the pricing

policy,whichremainscompletelyunchanged.

Indeed,oneof themainpillars that comesout fromthedatawehave, is

thatthesefirmsarethatstrongwiththeirpositiongivenbytheirMeaning

Innovationthatpotentiallytheyarefreetoactastheypreferontheprice.

Whatreallymatters,andwhatcouldbringtothefailurethesecompanies,

is not thewrong pricing, butmissing the expectation that the customers

haveonalltheservices,thusnotbeingabletoattendthepromisesmade

tothesides.

So far we talked just about the business side thus, for our Explanatory

Cases,theRestaurants,butthereareimportantremarkstomakeevenfor

82

the customer side, with a strong focus on the pricing and on the

externalities.Inparticular,itwouldbehelpfultomakearecapofthewhole

Literature Review regarding the Network Externalities and the Pricing

Policy.

Aswesaid,therecouldbetwotypesofnetworkeffectseitherpositiveor

negativerevealedbytheplatforms:asamesideeffectorcrosssideeffect,

inwhichthenumberofindividualsinonesideoftheplatformismakingthe

valueforother individualschange,either inthesamesideor intheother

side.

Pricingaplatformhavealwaysbeenanhardtasktoaccomplish,theprice

for each sideof theplatform should be chosenby theplatformmanager

taking care of the consequences that this choice has on the other side’s

growth and enthusiasm. In a platform we can usually recognize the

“subsidity side”, the group of customer which is highly valued by the

“money side”which is the groupof customerwilling to spendmoney for

theproductsortheservices.

The“subsidityside” iscrucial tohaveonboard,because ithelps tocreate

thevalueoftheplatformitselfandtoattracttheotherside,makingthem

willingtospendmore.Moreover,the“subsidityside”isattractedifonthe

platformarepresentlotsofindividualsinthemoneyside,becauseitmeans

that there could bemorepeoplewilling to buy their product or services.

Ultimately,pricingismorecomplicatedby“same-side”networkeffects.

Defining the level of the pricing for both sides is not an easy matter,

becausetheprocessshouldtakecareofthemechanismwesawearlierand

83

alsoofotherdynamicswhichwewillexplain inthefollowing list,which is

providedbyEisenmannetal.(2006):

• Thepricesensitivityofusers

• Usersensitivitytoquality

• TheCostofOutput

• TheeffectsoftheSame-sidenetwork

• BrandValueoftheusers

So,howthesedynamicsarevaryingwiththe introductionof theMeaning

InnovationthankstotheValueAddedServices?

The main point is the change of the classical effect of the Network

Externalities, what comes out from the interview is the complete

independence of the value perceived by the platform users from the

numberof individuals in theotherside:whatwealreadysaid is thatnow

whatreallymattersisthequalityoftheSecondSide,thusthequalityofthe

Restaurants, and this is the only thing that could influence the value

perceivedbythefinalcustomers.

Anotherimportantremarkhastobemadeonthepricing,thistimeforthe

final customers. Indeed, the pricing strategy in this market doesn’t take

careatallaboutwhoisthe“moneyside”orthe“supplyside”,itislikeboth

thesidearewillingtopaytheclassicalpremiumpriceforsomethingwhich

they could not live without: each of the rules we previously saw are

completelyovertakenbythewillingnesstobeontheplatformandtostart

enjoyingtheservices.

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6 ConclusionsIn this sectionwill bepossible tounderstandwhichare the conclusionof

theresearch.Atthebeginningthetheoreticalimplicationswillbeanalyzed,

thustryingtounderstandthemainremarksfromthepointofviewofthe

Literature.

GoingontheManagerialImplicationswillbepresented,tryingtoseewhere

thisresearchcouldbehelpfulforamanagerworkinginaPlatform.

At the end the future development are going to be seen, understanding

wherethereisfurtherspaceforresearching.

6.1 TheoreticalImplications

Fromatheoreticalperspectivethis researchaimsat fillingthegapamong

theinnovationofmeaningandtwo-sidedmarketsliteraturestreams.

In particular, this research contributes to the innovation of meaning

literature showing how this innovation strategy can be applied also on a

particular market structure, such as the two-sided markets, where the

serviceproviderlinktogethertwodifferentkindofcustomers.

Indeed,atthesametime,aftergeneratinganinnovationforthecustomer

side,thecompanyshouldbeabletosupportthisinnovationbyintroducing

anewmeaningfortheSecondSidetoo,anditcouldbedonethroughthe

exploitation of the potentiality of the Value Added Services, which are

servicesthatcouldbeevenquitedifferentfromtheonestypicallyprovided

by theplatform.All these, inorder todevelopanewmeaning interesting

for the business side too, no one so far have never published anything

whichis linkingthistwotheories,andtheremarkablepoint,aswesaw, is

thatintherealworldissomethinghappeningquitecommonly.

85

Inparticular, thedevelopmentof theseOneSideValueAddedServices is

interestingbecausewehadbeenabletoseethattheyarenotmeantlikea

classical subsidization, as stated in the paper provided by Sun and Tse in

which they were focusing on the law which were regulating such an

introductionwithallthepricingconsequencesthatthiscouldbring,butthe

meaninginnovationisabletocreateavirtuouscyclethroughwhichatthe

end the company is able toprovide them for free, exploiting all thedata

provided unconsciously by the customer using the platform, or, at least,

without changing the price for none of the sides once they have been

introduced.Thisissomethingwhichhadbeenconfirmedbyallthecaseswe

saw.Another importantremarkhastobemaderegardingthevariation in

theNetworkExternalitiesdynamics.

We verified that in some cases, they could not be valid anymore: the

introduction,oftheconceptofqualitywhichisgoingbeyondthematterof

thequantitybrought thecompanies to something radicallynew, inwhich

thevalueoftheplatformiscompletelyfarawayfromwhatEisenmannwas

explaining in its paper. In particular, when the Innovation of Meaning is

abletobringthenewreasonwhytobothsides,itcouldbringthemtovary

what they are expecting from the platform, giving rise to new type of

dynamicswhichcouldevennotbe linkedtothenumberof individualson

theplatform:inourcasewesawthateveniftherestaurantsarenotalot,

what reallymatter for the final customer is thequalityof theoneswhich

decidedtobeontheplatformandfortherestaurantsisthequalityofthe

servicesprovidedbytheplatformitself,thisiswhatmakesthevalueofthe

platform.

86

6.2 ManagerialImplications

The main managerial implications regard the way the company should

follow to provide an Innovation of Meaning in a Two Sided Market, in

particulartheimportanceofaddingnewservicestoonesidetosustainthe

whole strategy: if the Innovation of Meaning is strong, and the service

providedisfeltbybothsidesasvaluable,thereisthepossibilitythatboth

sides will stay onboard no matter how the pricing is structured or how

manyindividualsthereareintheothersideoftheplatform.

In particular, the company shouldbe able tomaintain a high standardof

quality,becausethereisthethreatthatifonesidestarttoseetheservice

asnotsatisfying,destroyingloopsmayarise,makingthecompanyfail.

Another important managerial implication is given by the way an

InnovationofMeaningcanmodifythedynamics,thusoncehadtheidea,if

this is strong enough, it is possible that the old paradigmof the classical

NetworkExternalitieswillbeovertaken,givingbirthtonewmechanism.It

goes by itself that the Innovation behind should be outstanding, but we

verified that the change can be really disruptive, bringing the concept of

NetworkExternalitiesfromamerematterofquantityto,aswesawinour

Explanatorycases,somethinglinkedtothequalityortheselection.

Agoodstartingpoint,inordertobeabletosucceedinthisstrategy,could

betonotfocustheinvestmentstogainhugenumberofindividualsforboth

the sides to reach value linked to the Externalities, but to invest in the

platformitself,providingtoboththetypesofcustomerssomethingwhichis

triggeringtheirattention.

87

6.3 FurtherResearch

Further research could be linked to the generalization of what we said,

indeed even if the cases we provided are a lot, in order to better

understand if the dynamic seen are valuable it should be analyzed on a

largerquantityofexamples.

So the future studies should focus on the introduction of Meaning

Innovation in platforms which do not have to be necessarily online, but

extendtheanalysisonothersectors,withtheaimtoprovethatthetrend

regardingtheOneSideValueAddedServiceistrue.

Moreover,weanalyzed thephenomenaunderqualitative lenses, there is

spacetounderstandifunderaquantitativeviewit ispossibletostatethe

samethings.

88

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8 AttachmentsCODINGFORTHEPLATFORM

PLATFORM(Cusumano,2010)

(CusumanoandGawer,2002)

(BonchekandChoudary,2013)

DELIVEROO

ACTORSOFTHE

PLATFORM

“Deliveroo è un pair che si occupa di gestire il servizio di Food-Delivery, digestireilcomplaindelclienteedisvolgeretuttequelleattivitàchestannotrailristoranteeilclientestesso”

CONNECTION

FACILITATED

“CreandoDeliverootuttoilsistemaègestitodaunplayer,cheèlapiattaforma,la quale non si occupa solo della consegna, ovvero la parte logistica delbusiness,masioccupaanchedialtridueassetsfondamentalichesonoquellisucui poi il ristorante ha meno capacità ossia il marketing e tutta la parte dicustomerservice.”“Lapiattaformaèmoltopiùfunzionalechenonemozionale,cioèlapiattaformadevepermettertidiscegliereilristorantechevuoiordinandonelminortempopossibile senza fronzoli. Non è il luogo in cui viene esplicitata l’esperienza dimarca.Devefunzionare.”“esperienzadidelivery,chenelnostrocasoècreatainmanierascalabilecomeprimanonpotevaessere”

Table9:CodingforthePlatform

94

CODINGFORTHETWO-SIDEDMARKETS

TWO-SIDED

MARKET(Eisenmannetal,

2006)(Evansand

Schmalensee,2007)(DouandXu,2016)(Armstrong,2006)

DELIVEROO

NUMBEROF

THESECOND

SIDE

“Abbiamocirca600ristorantiaMilanoecirca400aRoma.”“Abbiamonegatol’accessoallapiattaformaatantissimiristorantinelcorsodeltempo.”“IlposizionamentodiDeliverooèunposizionamentoqualitativamentealtodireiilpiùaltochec’èinItalia,Foodorasiavvicinamoltomadanoièaltosiaalivellodiqualitàdeiristorantichealivellodiservizio, inostristandardsonoaltissimi,edèunadellesfidepiùimportanti,enonèfacilemaèciòchetifadistinguereperdirenei confrontidi JustEat, cheèmoltopiùquantitativo chequalitativo.Foodoraècomenoipiùqualitativachequantitativa,peròmenodinoiecco.”

CHOICEOFTHE

SECONDSIDE

“Iristorantichevorrebberoentraresullapiattaformapossonoscrivercipoinoilivalutiamo e proviamo tutti, perché la selezione che facciamo risulta esserefondamentale: le persone potenzialmente devono sapere che qualsiasiristorantescelganosuDeliverooèunristorantediottimaqualitàanchesenonl’hannomaisentitonominare.”“Viene fatta un’esclusione che serva a garantire al cliente quelli che sonodeicriteriminimidiqualità”“quindi è normale che se in una città ci fossero diecimila ristoranti buoni,potenzialmentesarebbemeglio,masiccomenonècosìcitroviamoadoverfaredellescelte.”“èassolutamenteverocheilnumerodeiristorantièsolounfattore,maildatochenoi abbiamopotuto vedere sul lungoperiodoè che solo al clientenuovointeressaquestonumero,unavoltacheilclienteèfidelizzato,cioèdalsecondoordine in poi, la rosa dei ristoranti dalla quale questo cliente attingemano amano si restringe, la cosa incredibile è che i clienti iperfidelizzati, quindi queiclienti che ci scelgono una volta a settimana restringono questo campo adancorameno”“ristoranti da inizialmente il valore principale, ossia la credibilità, perché nelmomento in cui apro Deliveroo ciò che vedo prima è ciò che posso sceglierequindiquestomiinfluenzamolto,soprattuttosullapercezionediqualità.”

95

RELATIONSHIP

BETWEENSIDES

ANDPLATFORM

“supplydeiristoranti,tuttidimediaaltaqualità,peraumentareilvaloreversoilcliente”“è inevitabile che soprattutto all’inizio i nomi dei ristoranti disponibili sianomoltoimportantiperchédannogaranziaalclientesullaqualitàdelservizio.”“nonc’èuninteresseparticolaredapartenostraadavereunenormenumerodiristoranti,quantounaselezione,bocciamoinfattitantissimiristoranti”“Crescita funzionaleallenostrenecessitàdi coperturadella città.Nonc’èmaistata la necessità di dire dobbiamo arrivare per forza ad un numero, ilragionamento è cercare di capire quale sia il numero ottimale per cercare digarantireunacertaqualitàdiservizioinunadatazonadellacittà.”

PRICINGTHE

PLATFORM

“tuttociòchepuòportareilclienteadesserepiùsoddisfattodelserviziosenzaandarearendereDeliveroounarealtàinperdita,sonosituazionichesipossonopensareeapprovare,nullaèscrittonellapietra.”“Noi portiamo ai ristoranti un grosso aumento delle revenues e anche dipotenzialinuoviclientichepoiusufruirannodelristoranteancheoffline.”“Nonabbiamomaipensatodiabbassare iprezziairistorantiperchésappiamoper certo che loro possono lavorare con quel tipo di commissioneindipendentemente dai comportanti dei clienti, andare ad abbassare lacommissionesottounacertasogliaciimpediscediandareagenerareprofitto,equindisenonfacciamociòsaremmosolounbuconero.C’è invece la volontà di lungo periodo di riuscire ad essere così efficienti daabbassare la sogliadi ingressodei customer,manon sarà comunquequello ildelta,ladifferenzavera.”“il ristorantehaununico ruolo cheèquellodi fare il cibomigliorenelminortempopossibile. Il nostro ruolo comepiattaformaè spiegargli l’importanzadiquesti dati e lavorare in partnership con loro affinchè i dati matematicidiventinoqualcosaditangibileper loro.Percuinonc’èuncostoaggiuntivo inquesto,ma è uno degli asset della relazione che non può essere basata solosullapercentualechevieneapplicata,perchésennòrimaniconfinatosolonellaparte di servizio hard e non in quella di consulenza che invece puoi fare neiconfrontidiunattorechenonhaquestotipodicompetenze.”“Ci sono ristoranti che fanno il loro servizio di delivery e hanno la consegnagratuitasopraiventieuro,elagenteordinacomunquesopraiventieurodanoiperché siamo dei garanti: il ristorante non può farsi carico della garanzia sulserviziocomefacciamonoi.Aquestopuntoioclientesochelapiattaformamidalagaranziadiessereprotettodaqualsiasitipodiinconveniente.”“Secondo me la lotta vera, soprattutto in un mercato inizialmenteindifferenziatocomeèilnostro,devivincerlasulservizio,quindiilclientepaga2,50euromasachepagandoqueisoldiqualsiasicosasuccedaentrountotditempoèrisolta.Ameclientenoninteressadichièlacolpa,mamiinteressachetuttosiarisolto.”“Ilristorantesimetteingioco,selamiacomponentediservizio,cheinquesto

96

caso è il rapporto ristorante-rider ristorante-customer viene meno, aprescinderedallacommissione il ristorantecambiaperché la facciacomunquecelamettelui.”

DEVELOPMENT

OFVAT

“daunlatoilcontrollodellareportisticaelapossibilitàdiavereuncontrollosuquellacheèl’evoluzionedelbusinesslatodeliveryaprefinestredimercatocheil ristorante fino a quel giorno non aveva chiara o comunque non era bendefinita. Su una piattaforma come la nostra il ristorante può vedere nero subianco,mesesumese,comestaandandolasuaevoluzioneconunaseriedidatidi cui prima eramolto difficile tenere conto, per esempio qual è il piatto piùordinato,qualeèlafasciadiprezzocheiclientipreferisconoalivellodideliveryaqualègeograficamentelazonadovefinisconoimieiordini,conlapossibilitàpoiditrarnetutteleconclusionidelcaso.”“Lato pubblicità si ha sicuramente un impatto positivo, il ristorante vede lapossibilitàdiaccrescereilpropriobusiness.”“Lapiattaformavaaliberareilristorantedaldoverfaretuttequestecose,ossiaglisemplificalavitaenormemente.”“Unavoltachenoisappiamochec’èunacertaqualitàdicibooppurechealcuniprodotti sono quelli più richiesti, oppure che un certo ristorante èparticolarmente gettonato, riusciamo a dare una risposta a tutte questeesigenze”“la piattaforma acquisisce valore dai clienti perché effettuano transazioni,quindi il valore monetario, poi c’è una valore di dati, e in fine un valore dibehaviour,quindic’èundatoseccosultipodiordini,eunocheriguardailtipodiutilizzochefacciodellapiattaforma,quindipiùlegatoallifesylediciamo.”“contuttiidatichenoiraccogliamosiamodeiveriepropriconsulentitifacciodegliesempi:ilristorantexhaunpiattocheèilpiùrichiesto,peròèstagionale,possiamo analizzare il trend degli ordini di questo ristorante e vedere chenell’arcodella stagionalitàgliordini scendono inundatoperiodoperchéquelpiatto non è disponibile, possiamo quindi avvertirlo del fatto che ha sempreperformatomoltobene,malesueperformancediminuisconoancheperchéhatoltoquelpiatto.Altroesempioèandarealavoraresututtelemetrichecheilristorante ha, quindi il tempo di preparazione, il tempo di attesa medio, loscontrinomedio,edarglituttaunaseriedisuggerimenticheglipermettonodimigliorare tutta la parte di logistica. C’è poi il terzo tema, che è quello piùinteressante e più sfidante, ossia suggerirgli proprio le zone dove aprire unpotenziale nuovo locale, dove noi sappiamo che c’è potenzialmente unarichiesta altissima ma c’è una supply bassa di ristoranti a lui affini. Quindiandareamappareutilizzandoidatiraccoltidatuttigliattoriedirglichec’è lapossibilitàdiaprireunbusinesschepossaessereprofittevole.”Table10:CodingfortheTwo-SidedMarket

97

CODINGFORTHEMEANING

MEANING(Verganti,2008)(ChristensenandOverdorf,2000)(Verganti,2006)

DELIVEROO

OLDREASON

WHY

“AJustEatvariconosciutoilmeritodiaverapertoilmercato,maanchediaversdoganatoun’ideadifooddeliverynegativoacausadellabassaqualitàdelservizioedeiristorantichevilavorano.”“Paghiunafeeperentrareepoiilristoranteèlasciatoaséstesso,esistesolouncallcentermanonrisolvemoltideiproblemicheinevitabilmenteaccadono.”“facevanoleconsegneancheacostozerohannovistoleconsegneandareversodinoiperchélorononriesconoagarantireuncertostandarddiservizio,noiinvecesiamoobbligatiafarloenelcasoincuinoncelafacessimoabbiamotuttounapparatopredispostoamantenereicontatticonilcliente.”“c’èancheunatteggiamentodelclientechepassadarendereildeliveryunasituazioneemergenzialeocomunqueunatantum,adunaveraepropriaabitudinediconsumazione.”“Larispostaimmediataaquellocheèunbisognoaltrettantoimmediato,andareacolmarelanonpianificazionedellagiornataodellasettimanachepuòcapitareacausadiimprevistieimpegni.Quindiandareaproporreunarispostaalternativaadunqualcosacherichiederebbedeltempo,quindispesacucinareecc.”“Mancavaladeliverydeiristorantidiqualitàemancavailservizio.”

NEWREASON

WHY

“Afrontediunaspesaminimaperilcliente,ossia2,50euro,tuottieniunserviziodiprimaqualità,cioèsel’ordinedovesseessereinritardoperqualsiasimotivoilcustomerserviceticontattaperparlarne,sesuccedeunaqualsiasicosafuoridalnormaletupuoifacilmentetrovareicontattidell’aziendaeprocederetramitemail,livechatotelefono,esaicheitempidirispostasonoestremamentebassi.”“Noiportiamoairistorantiungrossoaumentodellerevenueseanchedipotenzialinuoviclientichepoiusufruirannodelristoranteancheoffline.”“ilfooddeliverydiqualitàinquestomomentoèandatoapicchiareinunbisognochec’era,forsedormiente,echeètotalmentediverso,sebbenenonsiadrasticamenteinnovativo,perònellasceltadelristorante,nellasceltadelfattorino,nellasceltadelservizio,èmoltoinnovativo.”“Deliveroo,siadalpuntodivistaglobalechelocale,abbiaun’animamoltoforte:unattaccamento,unmododitrattareisuoidipendentieognunodeiplayerchegravitanoattornoanoichesiaunico,eciònonlopuoiimparare,matiderivadalmodoincuil’aziendaèimpostataenonèbanale,èdifficilmentecopiabile,

98

mafaveramenteladifferenza.”“garanziaqualitàdiciòchepossotrovare,quindialdiladiquellicheconoscopossotrovareanchealtriristorantichesonosicuramentebuonigrazieallaselezionechelapiattaformafa.”

TECHNOLOGY

EPIPHANY

“Noi abbiamo una quantità̀ di dati molto interessanti per i ristoranti, eperiodicamente limostriamo a loro, per esempio se hanno raggi di consegnamolto estesi sapremo che dobbiamo focalizzarci sulla qualità̀ del packaginginvestendomagaridipiùalfinedigarantireunabuonaconservazionedelcibo.”“adoggiDeliverooèl’unicoserviziochetipermette,ditrackareintemporealel’ordine”“noi abbiamo un nostro sistema di back- end sul quale riceviamo gli ordini evediamointemporealeilnumerodiriderelalorolocalizzazione.”“Si, da miglioramenti lato gestionale, dati che riusciamo a raccogliere,statistiche: riusciamo ad andare dal ristorante e dirgli che ha un tempo dipreparazionemedio teoricodi ventiminuti,madaidati sappiamoche faottominutiquindiriusciamosempreamigliorarelestatisticheinmeglio.”“cambiodellasocietà̀ interminiditecnologia,conipassidagigantefattinegliultimi anni è stato possibile ridefinire un po’ tutto. Si pensi al fatto chevent’anni fa il delivery della pizza a domicilio esisteva lo stesso ma, con latecnologia di oggi si da la possibilità a molti più̀ clienti di accedere a questiservizi”“poter usufruire di servizi aggiuntivi, che va dal tracking dell’ordine allapossibilità̀ di scegliere in tempo reale in base alla disponibilità̀ del ristorante,quindibasandosisuciòcheilristorantehaenonha”

Table11:CodingfortheMeaning

99

SECONDARYSOURCES

TYPEOFDOCUMENT TITLE LINK

ARTICLELondonstartupDeliveroohasraised$100millionforitsrestaurantdeliveryservice

http://uk.businessinsider.com/london-startup-deliveroo-has-raised-100-million-for-its-restaurant-delivery-service-2015-11

RESEARCH DeliverooWikipage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliveroo

ARTICLE Deliverootechnologyprovidesopportunitiesbeyondfood

https://www.ft.com/content/3aaacabe-5f09-11e6-ae3f-77baadeb1c93

ARTICLEDeliverooridersprotestinLondonagainstchangestopaystructure

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/11/deliveroo-drivers-protest-london-changes-pay-structure

ARTICLERistorantiadomicilio,Bridgepointinveste275milioniinDeliveroo

http://www.repubblica.it/economia/finanza/2016/08/06/news/deliveroo_finanziamenti-145421860/

ARTICLE Deliveroooffersconcessionsinpayrow http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37076706

ARTICLE Deliveroo:WillTheyDeliver? http://themarketmogul.com/deliveroo-will-deliver/

ARTICLEHere'sHowDeliverooBuiltAnArmyOf5,000DriversInJust3Years

http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/02/17/deliveroo-army-5000-drivers-3-years/#4a9615c77cec

ARTICLE Deliveroo'spayrowisasymptomofafragilebusiness

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/08/15/deliveroos-pay-row-is-a-symptom-of-a-fragile-business/

ARTICLESomeDeliveroodriversareclaimingthatthey'regoingtobepaidlessthanminimumwage

http://uk.businessinsider.com/deliveroo-drivers-are-claiming-that-theyre-going-to-be-paid-less-than-minimum-wage-2016-5

ARTICLE Investorsserveuptasty$275mtakeawayforDeliveroo

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/investors-serve-up-tasty-275m-takeaway-for-deliveroo-6ccgrvcb0

ARTICLEDeliveroo,anOn-DemandFoodDeliveryService,Raises$275Million

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/06/business/dealbook/deliveroo-uber-food.html?_r=0

ARTICLE

Takeawaydeliveryservicethat'srulingtheroads...andnowDeliveroo'sbringingwinetoyourdoor!

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-3698006/Takeaway-delivery-service-s-ruling-roads-Deliveroo-s-bringing-wine-door.html

ARTICLE StartupoftheWeek:Deliveroo http://www.wired.co.uk/article/startup-of-the-week-deliveroo

ARTICLE Deliveroorevealsnewlogoandvisualidentity

https://www.creativereview.co.uk/deliveroorebrand/

ARTICLE DeliveroosettoexpandinAustralia

http://www.delicious.com.au/food-files/news-articles/article/deliveroo-set-expand-australia/a2c34e96-7814-4acc-bd6b-47cb069ad155

100

ARTICLEHowDeliverooandUberEATSarechangingthe£9bnfooddeliverylandscape

http://techcitynews.com/2016/08/09/how-deliveroo-and-ubereats-are-changing-the-9bn-food-delivery-landscape/

VIDEODeliveroo:aseimesidallo‘sbarco’inItalia.ConMilanoeRomasiguardaaunanewentry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q-HN0w-VZQ

VIDEO 'Wemaketheirprofits'-DeliverooWorkersonStrike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GtFPGtsAr4

VIDEO WilliamShu,Deliveroo-NOAH15London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAPRs8IcHBA

VIDEO WILLIAMSHU|DELIVEROO|STARTUPGRINDEUROPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1yRM8cYH0M

VIDEOLifeinsideDeliveroowithLeviAron,CountryManager,Australia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6PZR2XLtPc

VIDEODeliveringinanon-demandeconomy-WilliamShu&DavidRowan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkVTSzZTn0s

VIDEO DELIVERYDERBY:UBEREATSVS.DELIVEROO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUE4witV-fw

VIDEO Deliveroo,ilpiattopreferitoèdateinunsalto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aieZ07wTVRM

VIDEODeliverooSelfieVideo:Berlin'sStartupforhighqualityfooddelivery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq3LH1ichxA

VIDEO LarivoluzionedelcibodaasportosichiamaDeliveroo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lvi4MIxB8I

Table12:DeliverooSecondarySources

101

ONLINEFOODDELIVERYINDUSTRYSOURCES

TYPEOFDOCUMENT TITLE LINK

ARTICLE TheBillionDollarFoodDeliveryWars

https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/11/the-billion-dollar-food-delivery-wars/

ARTICLE Openinnovationinsalsaalimentare

http://nova.ilsole24ore.com/esperienze/open-innovation-in-salsa-alimentare/

ARTICLE AmazonportafruttaeverdurasuPrime:acasaentroun’ora

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/tecnologie/2016-02-15/amazon-porta-frutta-e-verdura-prime-casa-entro-un-ora-124825.shtml?uuid=ACJyDgUC

ARTICLEFaremilioniconiltakeaway:cinquestartupchecel'hannofatta

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/tecnologie/2015-12-04/le-super-start-up-food-foodora-182551.shtml?uuid=ACDJaYnB&nmll=2707

ARTICLE ASecularShiftToOnlineFoodOrdering

https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/07/a-secular-shift-to-online-food-ordering/#.spp8bwk:yugr

ARTICLEThetruthaboutworkingforDeliveroo,Uberandtheon-demandeconomy

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jun/15/he-truth-about-working-for-deliveroo-uber-and-the-on-demand-economy

ARTICLE Theriseoftheinstant-deliverylunch

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-trends/the-rise-of-the-instant-delivery-lunch/article29527060/

ARTICLE DeliveryFeverinBarcelona–6startupstofollow

http://blog.jobsbcn.com/index.php/2016/02/03/delivery-fever-barcelona-6-startups-follow/

VIDEO JUSTEAT,FOODORA,FOODINHO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GqIFmWztEk

VIDEO Start-upschangingthefooddeliverybusiness-BBCNews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GISuXBG-GQQ

Table13:OnlineFoodDeliverySecondarySources

102

SPOTIFYSOURCES

TYPEOFDOCUMENT TITLE LINK

ARTICLESpotify'sFinancialResultsReinforceJustHowBrokentheMusicBusinessIs

http://fortune.com/2016/05/24/spotify-financials/

ARTICLE HowSpotifycanrevolutionizethemusicbusiness

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-11-01/how-spotify-can-revolutionize-the-music-business

ARTICLE Spotifynegotiatingtopaylesstorecordlabels,reportsays

https://www.cnet.com/news/spotify-negotiating-to-pay-less-to-record-labels-report-says/

ARTICLEHowDoesSpotifyMakeMoney?Here'stheBusinessModelBehindtheStreamingService

https://mic.com/articles/137400/how-does-spotify-make-money-here-s-the-business-model-behind-the-streaming-service#.Ny5bxZaZw

ARTICLE BigmusicdatastreamingYoutubeSpotify

http://musically.com/2016/04/27/big-music-data-streaming-youtube-spotify/

ARTICLE HowBigDataEnabledSpotifyToChangeTheMusicIndustry

https://datafloq.com/read/big-data-enabled-spotify-change-music-industry/391

ARTICLE AnalyticsatSpotify https://labs.spotify.com/2013/05/13/analytics-at-spotify/

ARTICLE CommoditizingMusicMachineLearning:Services

https://labs.spotify.com/2016/08/07/commodity-music-ml-services/

VIDEO HowSpotifyandShazampredictmusic’snextbigtalent

http://dataconomy.com/predicting-musics-next-big-talent-big-data-case-spotify-shazam/

SITE SpotifyArtistswebpage https://artists.spotify.com

VIDEO Spotify-backedSoundtrackYourBrandturnsbigdataintomusic

http://www.tableau.com/stories/customer/spotify-backed-soundtrack-your-brand-turns-big-data-music

Table14:SpotifySecondarySources

103

TRIVAGOSOURCES

TYPEOFDOCUMENT TITLE LINK

SITE HotelManager http://www.trivago.it/hotelmanager/

ARTICLE TrivagoHotelManager,utile,gratuitoepotente

http://peralbergatori.com/2014/09/30/trivago-hotel-manager-utile-gratuito-e-potente/

ARTICLE Wikipediapage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivago

ARTICLE Trivagoco-founderonwhyitdoesn’treallyneedExpedia

https://skift.com/2014/01/22/skift-qa-trivago-co-founder-on-why-it-doesnt-really-need-expedia/

SITE TrivagoOffers http://company.trivago.com/business/

ARTICLE TrivagolaunchesdirecthotelbookingsinGermany

http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/trivago_launches_direct_hotel_bookings_in_germany

ARTICLE WhyThere'sNoEscapingthe'TrivagoGuy'

http://adage.com/article/ad-age-outlook/trivago-

tim-williams/299534/

Table15:TrivagoSecondarySources

104

UBERSOURCES

TYPEOFDOCUMENT TITLE LINK

ARTICLE whatisuberbusinessmodel https://www.quora.com/What-is-Ubers-business-model-1

ARTICLE HowUberWorks:InsightsintoBusiness&RevenueModel

http://nextjuggernaut.com/blog/how-uber-works-business-model-revenue-uber-insights/

ARTICLE TheBusinessModelofUberhttp://www.iplanner.net/business-financial/online/how-to-articles.aspx?article_id=business-model-uber

ARTICLE WikipediaPage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)

ARTICLE HowUberandNetflixturnbigdatarealbusinessvalue

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-uber-netflix-turn-big-data-real-business-value-bernard-marr

ARTICLE BigdatagivesinsightintoappealofserviceslikeUber

https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2016/09/16/big-data-gives-insight-appeal-services-uber

ARTICLE webpageofuber https://eng.uber.com/tag/big-data/

ARTICLE TheAmazingWaysUberIsUsingBigData

http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/the-amazing-ways-uber-is-using-big-data

VIDEO Uberthebigdatacompany http://www.forbes.com/sites/ronhirson/2015/03/23/uber-the-big-data-company/#2417244c25f4

VIDEO YouDon’tNeedBigData—YouNeedtheRightData

https://hbr.org/2016/11/you-dont-need-big-data-you-need-the-right-data

Table16:UberSecondarySources

105

AIRBNBSOURCES

TYPEOFDOCUMENT TITLE LINK

ARTICLEHowAirbnbUsesBigDataAndMachineLearningToGuideHostsToThePerfectPrice

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/06/05/how-airbnb-uses-big-data-and-machine-learning-to-guide-hosts-to-the-perfect-price/#78a9077d248d

ARTICLEBigDataAnalytics,howAirbnbusesbigdatatobettermatchguestsrooms

http://www.information-management.com/news/big-data-analytics/how-airbnb-uses-big-data-to-better-match-guests-rooms-10028582-1.html

ARTICLE Airbnb:Howbigdataisusedtodisruptthehospitalityindustry

http://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2016/may/09/airbnb-how-big-data-used-disrupt-hospitality-industry/

ARTICLEAirbnb’spricingalgorithmandAerosolve,itsopen-sourcemachinelearningtool

https://www.tnooz.com/article/airbnbs-pricing-algorithm-and-aerosolve-its-open-source-machine-learning-tool/

ARTICLEAirbnbopensourcingAirflow,Aerosolveformachinelearning,datadiscoveries

http://www.zdnet.com/article/airbnb-open-source-data-engineering-airflow-aerosolve-machine-learning/

ARTICLE HowdoesAirbnbusedatascienceandmachinelearning?

https://www.quora.com/How-does-Airbnb-use-data-science-and-machine-learning

ARTICLEALookatAirbnb’sPricingAlgorithmandOpenSourceMachineLearningTool

http://www.dataversity.net/a-look-at-airbnbs-pricing-algorithm-and-open-source-machine-learning-tool/

ARTICLE Airbnbrollsoutapricingrecommendationtoolforhosts

https://www.engadget.com/2015/06/04/airbnb-price-tips/

ARTICLE Airbnbunveilsanapplicationthatlearnsfromhumans

http://www.inquisitr.com/2147455/airbnb-unveils-an-application-that-learns-humans/

ARTICLE ThesecretsofAirbnbpricingalgorithm

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-secret-of-airbnbs-pricing-algorithm

Table17:AirbnbSecondarySources